Legend of the eight kings
by Ugabuga
Summary: Before the Overlord came to conquer the world, before the thirteen heroes defeated the rampaging demon gods and before magic was given to men; the dragon lords ruled the world. One night, strangers, travelers lost far from home, found themselves on the path of conquest. The world will later come to know them as the Eight Kings of Greed.
1. Chapter 1: Apotheosis

Chapter 1: Apotheosis

Silence reigned supreme. The thick mist permeating in the heart of the forest concealed to the untrained eye everything lying further than a few steps away. Dried grass and fallen leaves covered the uneven ground from which bare trees rose; the moon's silvery rays painted the world grey, evoking a faint sense of dread in those whom beheld it.

In this spectral landscape deprived of sound and colour, several large beasts stood still; their gazes lost in the all-embracing mist. Six in numbers, these large canines had the appearance of enormous grey wolves with an incredibly thick manes and overdeveloped frontal paws.

The place they were in was named "Oblivion forest", one of Yggdrasil's least frequented areas. Knowing the shortcut, one could easily skip the endless sea of trees, mist and random monsters, and just reach the entrance of the dungeon's second floor; most players did. There was nothing in there that couldn't be found elsewhere, and the place itself was more problems than it was worth it.

The visual was greatly reduced due to the densely packed trees and the ever-present mist, which made it difficult to see approaching threats. It was also hard to tell apart the variant monsters from their basic counterparts at a safe distance, which had cost the lives of several careless players.

As if that wasn't enough, trees, hills and rocks kept slowly changing position. The oblivion forest would constantly shift every non-magical landmark in order to make the players move toward its centre. Entering the map without a skilled ranger or a magic caster with the appropriate spells would be synonym to suicide. The ones that thought walking in a straight line was enough to get out had never left alive.

But what to most was but a bad feature, to others was opportunity. An undesirable map lacked competitors, leaving the entirety of its resources to the few that entered. One of such people was currently nearby, spying on the beasts while hidden behind a tree.

Wrapped in a pitch-black cloak that seemed to devour all light, he was concealing his face behind a pale featureless mask.

He analysed the pack. The beasts' figures matched in his mind a monster's called [Forest's bane]; all their features and patterns were instantly recalled. Their primary offensive constituted in a double slashing attack executed with their frontal paws, followed by a bite attack that would lead to a grapple. If one got trapped in their fangs he would quickly fall from the pack's combined attacks.

He kept studying them.

Small spots on their bodies shone faintly, highlighted by his class ability. [Detect weakness V] revealed a pattern different from the on he knew; they were variants, impossible to say which one at that distance, perhaps [Red forest's banes].

Below the cloak he raised his daggers. One had three thin blades, twirling together into a single spiral with an unevenly shaped crystalline rod encased within. The blade was about thirty centimetres long, made of an impossible metal resembling semi-transparent silver. The other weapon shared both size and material; it had a slightly curved one-edged blade meant for slashing and its guard was too small to be effective in protecting the hand.

The targets were stronger than usual, but still well within his abilities.

He triggered the power of his rings. [Greater invisibility] and [Silence] covered his body, concealing him in an arcane membrane. There were many other higher ranked spells a player could have used to evade the senses, but lower levelled spells imbued in high-tier items could be used repeatedly, and his other stealth skills were far beyond sufficient to make up for the quality gap.

He then activated his ability boosts on attack and speed, and while concealed by magical silence he chanted two of the few spells he knew.

"[Delayed perception field] [Image of calm]."

As his mana decreased he weaved two illusions around the pack. Once the forest's banes were entangled in his spells, he left the cover of the tree and dashed toward them.

He moved quickly, faster than they could react; he entered the field and raced toward the first beast's throat. The spiral blade found no resistance as it entered the creature's weak-spot. Before even fully retracting the blade he had stabbed again in the flank, piercing with his curved blade where the beast's heart would have been in the real world. He then moved the dagger toward the ground to aggravate the injury.

As the beast was dropping dead faster than it could perceive what had happened; he was already working on the second target. He rested the sharp edge of his curved blade on its throat and jumped to the other side, drawing a long and lethal line all around its neck.

He landed between two forest's banes. One of them had begun to move its head toward the first one he slew, he had to speed things up.

He simultaneously stabbed both monsters in the side, his blades piercing deep in their flesh. He then slashed upward with the curved blade and drew and arc beginning in one's body and ending in the back of the other creature, slaying the two of them in a single motion.

Normal forest's banes would have perished in a single hit but the red ones were considerably tougher, and his [Death attack] didn't work well on variants. Four were now eliminated, only two were left.

[Image of calm] was a powerful yet fragile illusion. Everyone whom was in the area at the moment of casting would be unable to perceive any meaningful change on the outside, but it was easy to disbelieve.

[Delayed perception field] on the other hand was a sure hit, only those with complete immunity to magic could fully escape its effect. Its targets would perceive everything five seconds after it happened, regardless of what senses they had at their disposal. Even if someone managed to disbelieve it immediately, the user would still have a five seconds advantage on the victim; to someone that had carefully worked on speed, agility and DPS, it was plenty of time to score a few free kills.

Using the two of them together would allow the former's weaknesses to be overcome by the latter, allowing him to practically do as he pleased until both were disbelieved; which appeared to be right about now. The last two beasts were turning toward him, locating his position through the scent regardless of greater invisibility and silence.

He wasn't proficient enough in illusions to win with them alone; he just made use of the ones granted by his racial ability to have an edge in fights. His assassination style was only enhanced by illusions, not based on them.

"[Conjure greater darkness]."

The area around him was instantly deprived of all light by the class skill he invoked, but the beasts kept moving forward in their charge toward him guided by the scent in the air.

He used the [Shadow meld IV] class ability and vanished in the mystical darkness; he then reappeared above the beast further away from where he was, stabbing it in the back with both daggers.

He flew through the darkness toward the remaining one, still racing toward where he was prior to teleporting within the shadow, and pierced it with the curved blade in his flank. Keeping the blade in the flesh, he flew around the creature drawing a long cut all over the monster's body. When he reached the front of the beast, it was no longer moving.

He landed not too far away and checked the area; it appeared there were no longer threats. The beasts were already vanishing into light while leaving behind their drops. Seeing the fight was over he dispelled the darkness in the area and disabled the rings' powers.

The hooded figure then moved toward what was left on the ground, six transparent spheres floating a few steps from the dirt and that many small crystals faintly glowing amongst the leaves.

The spheres vanished one by one as he lightly touched them with two fingers. The dark figure then brushed the leaves off the crystals with the back of his hand and picked them all up. He proceeded to carefully study the six objects in the palm of his hand.

Data crystals. The primary resource that over four fifths of every player's gear was built of. They could be found pretty much everywhere, but there was never enough to satisfy the players' endless hunger for better equipment.

Having found enough of the variety he was looking for, he grabbed the golden medallion concealed under his cloak and held it in front of him.

A pale light radiated out of it, constantly changing from shape to shape in an attempt to stabilise. After a few moments it morphed in the form of a demonic creature, looking directly at him.

A voice then came out of the small figure he held on his palm.

"Hi. Have you finished yet?"

He answered the question while raising his hand, showing the six small objects it held.

"Yes. I've got the last data crystals of magical defence. How are the others doing?"

The fiendish creature reassuringly showed his palm while keeping the other hand behind his back.

"They are about to finish. They'll all be here in ten minutes or so."

The hooded shadow nodded in approval.

"Very well. I'll be there in a few minutes."

The fiend nodded while putting an end to the conversation.

"Ok then. See you later."

After the light vanished from his hand he placed the medallion back under his cloak. Waving his hand in the empty space in front of him, he accessed the inventory and stored his newly acquired items within. The clock on the corner of the menu then attracted his attention.

23:04:35

There was little less than an hour before the end of the game.

He closed the interface and prepared to leave. Being late on the last day was the last thing he wanted.

He quickly took a look around to check if it was safe to use a fast-travel ability, something all players got used to do. It was more of a habit than anything else, but this time, rather than just taking a quick look and disappearing immediately after, he stopped. Something felt wrong.

Unable to picture exactly what felt out of place, he instinctively moved his hands close to his weapons' hilts and carefully analysed the space around him once more.

The trees appeared to be normal, constantly moving at an almost imperceptible pace. The ground wasn't abnormal either, but something had changed. It was the mist.

A very light breeze kept constantly blowing in the oblivion forest, but due to the map's ever-changing geography it was everything but stable. He was used in seeing it slowly change direction, but this time the change was more abrupt than he had ever seen.

There was also something else. It was as though the mist was brighter. Almost as if the water particles were reflecting…

An intense beam of light dashed out of the trees and shoot toward his head.

Unable to see the type or nature of the attack but still sensing it coming, the hooded shadow jumped to the side with all the speed his virtual body put at his disposal. While he was landing several meters from where he had been, he caught out of the corner of the eye the luminous attack passing through the now empty space, only to crash in a tree far behind him.

He wasn't allowed the time to try figuring out the attack's speed or power, as a second one was quick to follow. He had however managed to gauge the general direction from which he was being attacked, and as he faced that way he saw a small mass of pulsating light flying toward his head.

His defence stats were embarrassingly low and he couldn't take many hits, but he was all but defenceless in combat. With measured movements he shifted his balance and brought his head outside the projectile's trajectory. The gleaming bullet passed just a few centimetres from his face.

The vast majority humanoids shared a weakness to decapitation and other head injuries; a well-aimed hit could end a fight before it could even start. The head is however a small target to hit, and players with high levels of agility could easily move it outside the path of any attack they managed to spot. He knew he could avoid headshots with ease, and it seemed his attacker had figured it out as well. The next shot was aimed at the heart.

The attack came from a slightly different angle than the two before; his opponent must have begun to circle around him. He jumped backward to gain more room to manoeuvre and let the third beam fly past him, the fourth attack followed close behind and went dangerously close to where he was headed. It had been only a few seconds since the first shot was fired but his opponent was already starting to see through his evasion pattern.

As he was running backward, increasing the distance between him and the sniper's supposed location while looking for incoming attacks, he activated the powers of the rings and covered his body with an arcane membrane of invisibility and silence.

The fifth beam was coming, if he did nothing to significantly alter his trajectory it would pass straight through his heart.

He decided to jump, putting several meters between him and the ground.

Jumping in a fight was an unconventional move, with more disadvantages than merits; but how he moved when seen and when hidden were two completely different things, as if he were two distinct people. The former stressed efficiency, while the latter emphasised unpredictability. This switch in patterns gave him an edge in most combats, creating false assumptions and subverting adversary's expectations, but this wasn't going to be one of such fights.

The sixth attack still came for him as the ones that preceded it, as if all the steps taken to misdirect the opposition had been for nothing, catching him off guard while he had no way to maintain his balance.

With no other option available in such a short time frame, he crossed his arms in front of the chest to shield his body as well as he could.

Without any footing, the attack's force pushed him away like it were a battering ram, violently tossing his body against a tree.

Spinning uncontrollably in the air for a time that felt endless, he finally disastrously hit the ground and rolled in the dirt until his stomach slammed against a tree.

Basic survival instinct immediately rocketed all the way to the top of his mental priorities list, surpassing trivial questions such as how many HPs were left and how was there someone in the oblivion forest capable of spotting him with such precision. Without even bothering to get up, he crawled on the opposite side of the tree he had slammed against and leaned his back on it.

Now that he had cover from the sniper he was safe, at least for the next forty seconds. Maybe thirty.

He was facing an opponent that could accurately sense his position and follow his movements. He could attack him from far away with projectiles capable of taking him out in two shots or three, probably limited to rounds of six since there were no extra attacks after he was hit.

The two most pressing issues were that magical cover was insufficient and the attacks carried the light element, rendering his primary defensive techniques ineffective. Luckily the attacks lacked enough power to shatter through cover and could only move in a straight line, the likely cool-down period after the sixth hit was also a slight relief.

He was probably against a monster. Players wouldn't spend the last moments of the game camping in a remote server such as the oblivion forest; the ones that enjoyed harassing players would rather pick more frequented areas. That would also explain the lack of confusion even when he switched evasion pattern.

But regardless of whether his opponent was a thinking person or code moved by an AI, a single hit had caused overall damage for over a third of his HPs. A mistake could spell his death in a few seconds.

The masked figure moved his legs closer to his body to reduce as much as possible his exposed surface area. He then slowly moved toward the side of the three opposite to where he assumed the sniper to currently be.

He then moved one hand to the hilt of the spiral dagger, ready to draw it at any moment, while placing his other hand in a small rune-covered sack hanging down his belt. He grabbed something within, and when he pulled his hand out he was holding something that could only be described as fuming darkness.

With it, the hooded man quickly drew four V shaped symbols in front of him, floating in the air without dispersing in defiance of both gravity and wind. They quickly began to change, abandoning their shape while becoming more limpid. They then fell toward the ground, completing their transmutation and turning into large crows.

The four creatures were now looking at him, awaiting command from their summoner.

He quickly opened his inventory and took out all the crystals he had collected that day. He then placed his hand filled with the small stones close to the nearest crow and gave the vocal command.

"[Carry multiple items: Data crystal]"

The summoned bird quickly swallowed all the crystals in his hand in one fell swoop, returning in the waiting stance once it finished playing the animation.

"[Fly to location: Asgard map, Eryuentiu's flying castle. Find player: Azul Val Khan; if successful, dispel summon.]"

Upon hearing the command the crow turned away and spread open his wings, preparing himself to fly. Before it could leave the ground, the hooded man quietly casted a spell to conceal his messenger from the opponent.

"[Greater invisibility]."

As his mana points decreased even further, the crow vanished from view.

There was no way of saying whether his summoned monster could actually make it all the way to the base, but [Odin's crows] were far tougher than they looked and awfully good at dodging. He couldn't picture anyone on the last hour bothering to actively hunt it down.

Even though the first was gone, the remaining three still awaited orders.

"[Fly: Pattern 01C. Direction: 6. Range: 400]."

At his words, the crows swiftly left the ground and flew high above him; heading toward his best approximation of the sniper's location. As they disappeared between the moving trees and the mist, he activated the special ability of the "Odin's crows", [Share senses].

Windows with moving images of the surrounding area appeared in his field of view, one linked to each summon.

Having multiple eyes moving around the battlefield and sending him a constant steam of information gave him an edge in fights, but he couldn't stay idle while waiting for them to find his opponent. To gain the upper hand one must be proactive.

The first step was to find another cover, that tree couldn't protect him forever; he had to locate another spot.

He checked the surroundings. There wasn't much time left; the attacks would resume any moment now.

He managed to identify three suitable locations to hide behind. Two were trees, one close enough to the other, and the third a rock six meters behind him.

He breathed in deeply, trying to ease the tension. If he were to move he had to do it now, or later he would be under fire from an unseen opponent.

The cloaked shadow ran as fast as he could, the objective being the tree on the left, the nearest of the two; he hadn't even covered two meters that another beam of light arrived from his right.

He was able to clearly see it coming; the sniper had once more aimed for the head. He slightly slowed his pace, just enough to make the attack pass right in front of him.

He glimpsed at the screens and verified whether the crows were following the program of the 01C pattern; they were already heading toward the source of the enemy attacks. According to the mini-map they would converge not too far away from his position; the sniper's range was shorter than expected.

He sprinted onward and changed his objective to the tree on the right, the one closer to the newfound sniper's location; thus the best point from which to launch an offensive.

Before he could reach it the sniper had already adjusted his aim to match his speed, a second attack came flying toward him. He lowered his stance as much as he could without sacrificing speed and let the beam pass above him.

With a final jump, he landed close to the tree and took cover behind it.

His back now on the trunk, the hooded man once more looked at the windows relaying the crow's views. Mist and trees were all he could see; there was no trace of his assailant.

He grabbed his second blade and prepared for another change of cover. If the crows couldn't locate the sniper within the next twenty seconds he would have to charge toward the last known location and attack without any information, just hoping to catch a glimpse of him in the mist. Nothing of that sounded good.

He kept observing the screens while keeping an eye on his surroundings; nothing but the scenery could be seen. His summons weren't producing the results he had hoped for.

The seconds counted in his head were nearing his self-imposed deadline and he still was nowhere close to locate his opponent. He was just about to switch location when, after checking what the summons were seeing one last time, something finally appeared in the window of the second crow.

Someone was there. She had an undeveloped feminine body; if someone were to mistake her for a human, he would think of her as a ten years old child. Her skin was pale, in sharp contrast with the long dark hairs reaching all the way down to her knees.

Two large semi-transparent wings in the shape of maple leaves emerged from her back, keeping her feet off the ground.

A silvery crown adorned her head, the dark gem in it probably being a high opal. She was wearing a dark blue dress with a large skirt clearly longer than needed. Either a floral pattern or actual plants decorated everything she wore.

Six spheres of light were floating in circles around her back as she flew through the oblivion forest, skilfully avoiding the trees.

That description only matched with one possibility.

Fairy queen.

Even though it was the first time he met one and had never read anything about them beside appearance and level, it didn't mean he was unprepared.

Fairies as a species had resistance to non-magical weapons, which wasn't going to be a problem. They were fast and adept fliers, naturally gifted in magic and could cast a few tricky mind-affecting spells; nothing he couldn't take care of.

The real problem was her being around level ninety, meaning she also had access to the advanced fey traits. That unfortunately included [True seeing], making all the spells of his rings and racial illusory eye useless, as well as [Greater darkvision], taking away from him the easy path to close the fight.

He checked how much mana he had left. If he used the class skill [Conjure greater darkness] on an area that wide he ought to have enough to maintain it for about forty seconds, less if he used other mana-consuming skills. But as long as he could maintain it he could use all his class bonuses and abilities that worked only in absolute darkness, granting himself a considerable field advantage even if he couldn't directly affect the fairy's senses. Bringing the fight in the dark was his best tactical option.

The three crows were observing the fairy queen from multiple locations. She was still on the move and was too focused on him to mind the summons. Now was the time to strike.

[Conjure greater darkness].

The world around them was instantly voided of all light. His [Shadow eyes] ability automatically activated the moment darkness swallowed the area. All that was touched by darkness appeared clearer to him than if there had been light; it was the ultimate version of [Dark vision], perceiving through shadows and denying cover, though giving him only shapes without colour.

He saw the fairy queen had yet to react to the sudden change in the environment, and he would never give her the time to do so; he fought to kill before his targets could put up a fight. Enveloped by darkness, he activated his [Shadow meld IV] skill and teleported at the fairy's back.

Jabbing the spiral blade between her wings with deadly precision, all his bonuses kicked in at once as the blade penetrated her body. Then, without even the faintest sound, she fell on the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Or at least that was what was supposed to have happened; but when the tip of the blade touched her back, she turned ethereal in defiance of what he believed her to be capable of, negating the vast majority of the damage.

As if that wasn't enough, the moment she abandoned her material form the six luminous spheres floating around her slammed against each other, resulting in a massive explosion of light that eradicated trees and destroyed the section of the forest they were in.

He instinctively attempted to use the [Death shadow] class skill to protect himself by assuming ethereal form as well, mirroring the self-defence system used by his opponent, but the attack's light had dispelled his darkness and he was caught in the explosion regardless.

Unable to defend himself, he was blown away by the attack's power. His health was dropping at an alarming speed, diminishing at a rate that left him only with precious seconds to live. Even though he was flying uncontrollably inside a storm of broken trees, dirt and light, he instantly weighted the benefits and downsides of using a one-use-only cash item to get out of the current predicament alive; being on the last hour of the game was a solid enough argument to shatter the crystal on his wristband to trigger its power.

Once the beyond rare item he had never dared to use since he obtained it was in pieces around him, his HP bar immediately froze at less than a twentieth of its total; he had made it just in time. Even as he ruinously fell on the ground and tree logs rolled over him, not a single HP was lost.

Once the attack was finally over he then got back on his feet and looked at the aftermath of the explosion. In the crater there were nothing but ashes, himself and his opponent. Not a single shadow to make use of, not a single cover to hide behind, even the one-use-only legendary item he had as an emergency lifeline had already exhausted its effect.

The mist blown away by the explosion was already making its way back in the area, but for a brief moment he was finally able to see the now material fairy queen without his vision hindered by the fog. It was then that he at last realized his mistake.

She wasn't a normal fairy queen. She was the white variant.

That explained both the unusual attack pattern and the ethereal form skill. She was far stronger than he had initially estimated, and now he was left with just a third the mana and almost no Hp. That wasn't at all how he imagined his last fight of the game to go.

The white fairy queen had already reformed the six globes of light around her and was heading his way; she would finish him off once the distance between them was too little for him to dodge.

If he were to use a teleporting skill she would attack right away, killing him before he could complete the transfer. Illusions were useless and she was too far away for him to realistically cross the distance alive and engage her in melee. Between them there was nothing he could take cover behind and his [Odin's crows] had no fighting ability to speak of. Her explosion attack was also particularly difficult to deal with.

Normally there were multiple ways for assassins to deal with that kind of enemy, but most of them relied on the two things he didn't had; having prepared in advance for the fight and having the surprise factor. In the current situation, he couldn't defeat an opponent that was aware of his location.

His eyes went on the clock.

23:05:42

No other choices then, he couldn't waste time fighting against her. He had to use one of his best trump cards and overwhelm her through sheer power. He wasn't a fan of abilities with long cooldowns, but they were designed for situations like these.

[Midnight call]

* * *

23:45:23

"…Where the hell are you?"

Looking at the light shaped in the form of a demon on the medallion, he quietly listened to his furious guild master.

"Still in the oblivion forest."

He said it as calmly as possible, keeping his tone neutral and avoiding any comment that could anger his companion any further, but he got still shouted at.

"Are you kidding?! You were the first to finish, why are you still there?"

The hooded figure raised an intricately decorated silvery crown with his hand so that the demon could see it.

"There was a variant monster. I defeated it, but when it died she created a barrier around the area that doesn't allow the use of teleportation so… I'm stuck here."

The fiend on the medallion dramatically covered his eyes with his hand, only to then proceed to talk with a tired voice.

"Can you break it?"

 _Yes, but I just like to spend half an hour standing in a forest watching trees._ He dismissed that thought and picked a less sarcastic answer.

"I'm working on it right now, however it's taking way longer than usual."

"How soon you'll be here?"

"Not so sure myself, but I'll keep working on it. Have you received my crow yet?"

The demon nodded.

"It has arrived a while ago, we have already started forging."

 _Don't bother waiting for me guys, it's not like I wanted to be here or anything._ No, it was literally the last time he will be seeing most of these people; it's not worth it to make a scene. Better to let it go and end on a high note.

"Ok, keep going. I'll be there the moment I'm done here."

"Very well. See you later then."

"See you."

The demon-shaped light disappeared from the medallion, letting silence return in the forest.

He had been trapped there for over half an hour. The racial regeneration had already healed him back to full health and the mana had somewhat returned with time, but it didn't change that he was still stuck in the middle of the forest, alone, in the last day the server.

The crown dropped by the white fairy queen was quite the item. It granted a passive boost to detection and allowed to automatically track the location of up to three targets, with the only condition being visual contact with them at the moment of the activation. That at least explained how she was able to locate him through all the passive stealth skills he had.

Now it was his, but there weren't many things to be done with it in the remaining time of the server.

The [Greater detect weak spot] skill was taking way more than usual to identify the weak spots of the barrier. It worked accordingly with the level difference, the time spent observing the targets and to the number of times it had been used on a similar target before; but in this case there seemed to be a protection effect on the barrier itself, beside the fact he had rarely seen such barriers before.

In the time spent alone in the forest analysing the barrier's weak spots, his mind begun to wander. A quick recap of tomorrow's plans, some chores he hadn't time to finish, how he spent the last day in the game and, eventually, why was it shutting down.

It had never been actually explained why was it happening, but people had theories. The most likely one for him was that the game just couldn't work in the first place. The developers designed it so that the resources were limited and guilds could claim them. The strong guilds took all the bases, the high level terrains and the most powerful items; while the new players had no way to even try to compete.

This lead to a situation in which weak players wouldn't enjoy the game unless strong guilds invited them in, rare occurrence considering the tenacity veterans defended their secrets from each other.

This unbalanced system made new players give up on the game because stronger people were ruining the experience. And those same players would eventually end up stop playing for personal reasons later on.

Yggdrasil simply lost players faster than it could get them; leading to the game earning less money than what it was needed to maintain it.

It all ended because there weren't enough players. But, in all honesty, who could blame the new players for dropping such an unbelievably frustrating game? Frustration and depression were too often underestimated.

As his mind was spiralling into thoughts about increasingly random subjects, his skill finally detected a weak spot in the barrier. It was merely a small little point at the height of his knee, no larger than a finger, but for him it was more than enough.

He drew out the spiral blade and kneeled at the height of the spot; he then placed its point in the middle of the detected area and pushed with all his strength. The blade struggled to pierce through the barrier, but he managed to leave a small hole in it.

He quickly retracted the blade and used his racial ability [Gaseous form] to turn his body and all his equipment into mist. He swiftly flowed thought the small fissure before it could mend, and once on the other side he reassumed his solid form.

He looked at the clock.

23:58:23

He was late. He was extremely late.

He immediately conjured a wide shadow on the ground and used it to activate his best fast travel skill.

[Dark world portal]

He stepped without hesitation into the magical darkness and fell through the mystic hole he tore in the world.

He found himself in a world with no light. Using his [Shadow eyes] he could still see its shape; it was a world similar to the one he was previously in, though with neither life nor light.

It was the Dark world, a sub-map which he could take advantage of due to his [Dark world assassin] class. Thanks to the [Dark world portal] he could access it from any shadow big enough to let him pass through, and once inside he could leave it from any shadow in the main map. Combining the great mobility he had inside such darkness with the fact the world was scaled down, it was a powerful combination both in and out of combat.

Without wasting any second, he used the [Shadow meld IV] class skill and shifted toward the guild area.

23:58:45

Once there he looked for a portal that could lead him to the other side, but the closest to his destination was too small for him to pass though, he had to use another skill to enlarge it.

[Interplanar conjure greater darkness]

The portal in front of him grew bigger and larger, until it widened enough to let him pass through. As he looked on the other side, he saw the guild's main room.

23:59:59

He touched the portal.

00:00:00

And he passed through.


	2. Chapter 2: Beginning

Chapter 2: Beginning

He walked out of the shadows and made a few steps forward. He then looked at the world around him.

Ahead, far away in the distance, the vast sea disturbed the full moon's reflection with its waves. Above it, a fresh breeze gently pushed the clouds away, revealing a majestic night sky painted with countless stars.

A delicate wind blew through the plain's grass and agitated the leaves behind him. The forest at his back had trees he had never seen before, displayed in a disordered formation that was proof of men's absence.

Where in the world was he? That was neither the guild base nor his room.

He felt his head spinning. He took a step back and leaned against a tree.

In his view there weren't anymore the windows displaying the location, the time or anything of the ones he always kept open.

He felt the temperature of his body rise and his legs struggle to sustain his weight.

He raised his hand to wipe away the sweat on his forehead, but the hand he saw wasn't his. A thin hand covered in a black glove was substituting his own, and the fact that he could feel it as a part of his body made it even more terrifying.

His heart begun to race faster and faster, his entire body was shaking and he felt his stomach aching.

He immediately looked at the other hand and realized in horror that it was in the same condition, that his whole body was in the same condition; a foreign body had substituted his own.

What was going on? Where was he? What had happened to his body? Who did this to him? Was he hallucinating? Was he still in the game? But how could he be in the game if there were no windows active? Midnight should have passed by now, so that couldn't possibly be the game; or could it? But the server should have been shut down at midnight. Did the forced log out fry his brain? Was he in a coma? Was he dead? Was that a limbo?

As his vision begun to darken and his consciousness was about to fade, he closed his newfound right hand in a fist. He tightened it as hard as he could, trying to focus thought the storm of questions in his head on what he had to do.

He raised his arm high; he then slammed it down on the leg, punching it as hard as he could.

The pain was way stronger than he expected, quickly moving thought the nervous system from the leg to his brain. Once there it overwhelmed his mind, forcibly interrupting the vicious cycle of answerless questions that kept forming in his brain and bringing him back to reality.

He begun to slowly inhale and exhale, intervals of five seconds.

The heart slowed down and returned to beat at a normal pace. The body temperature returned normal. His vision clears once more.

He kept regulating his breath for a few minutes. His body wasn't shaking anymore and the pain in the stomach had vanished. The head wasn't spinning anymore, he wasn't sweating and strength had returned to his legs.

He sat down, leaning his back against the tree while regaining control over his emotions. He closed his eyes. He listened to the waves slowly fading on the beach, the wind constantly moving the grass and the leaves.

Nothing else was there, just him.

He had regained his composure; he was once more in control of his emotion.

With his mind lucid and fully functional, it was now the moment to analyze the situation he was in. Last thing he remembered was to be playing Yggdrasil on the last day of the server, he went to gather items for the guild leader's project but got delayed. He had do wait until the very last minutes before the end of the game and then tried to reach the guild, ending up in that place.

He currently had no idea of where he was or how he got there.

The thing that concerned him the most was however the change which occurred to his body. He had taken only a quick look of himself, but it was clear that the body wasn't his own.

He raised his right hand and looked at it. The glove seemed to be of extremely high quality; it was probably made out of some kind of leather, but he wasn't knowledgeable enough about such argument to get anything more. He grabbed it by the fingertips and uncovered the hand.

It was far slender than his, with fingers much longer than the ones any human had. The skin was deep black, extremely flexible and sensible, but at the same time hard on the touch and quite resistant. Each finger ended in a long and sharp nail, curved toward the inside and resembling the ones of a talon. There was also a golden ring on the index; it had a wider side on the back of the hand with inscribed a symbol he recognized at first glance. It was his [Ring of greater invisibility] back from the game.

Linking the ring to his character, the unknown body immediately became familiar; it was his Yggdrasil's avatar.

As he tried to touch his face, he found his mask covering it. From the inside it was completely transparent, and it was so light that he didn't even realized he was wearing it until that moment.

He instinctively checked if his other items were there. As he felt the cloak on his shoulders and the daggers hidden below, he had a short sight of relief.

He had the items of the game and the body of the game, but was he in a game?

He observed closely the world around him, gathering every single detail his eyes could grasp.

He looked at the grass, its individual strings all separated from one another, a smell he hadn't experienced for so long. He felt the fresh wind on his body, its unmistakable sound, the hardness of the tree behind his back, the realism of the night sky and the details of everything he placed his sight upon.

And then, stars. He had seen them just once in his entire life when he was a child, he would have never hoped to see them again. When he first saw them, only a few were visible; but there the night sky was covered in every corner.

No matter how much his brain wanted him to believe otherwise, that was undoubtedly reality.

As he wore back his glove he couldn't help but wonder how could he be using his game avatar in a real world. Which led to another question, was that world the one he came from?

He looked again at the sea, no ships within sight were sailing.

He couldn't see any port, construction or any form of landmark that could identify that place.

He observed once more the majestic night sky above him, without recognizing any of the constellations his father taught him to find. Nothing of what he could see was a valid proof of him being at home.

He decided to stand up and go looking for sings of civilization. Remaining there wasn't going to give him any answer, but where there were people he was confidant he could find out something about the place.

In front of him there was the beach, behind him a forest.

Common sense would suggest to reach the beach and look for footprints; by walking close to the sea a ship could pass by sooner or later, and by walking long enough you would encounter a city. If in need of food it would even be possible to attempt fishing. Anyone looking for people would have chosen the beach under normal circumstances; but being dragged in an unknown location, without instructions, the body of a video game character and weapons weren't normal circumstances.

If there were people nearby, he wanted to observe them first. And if a problem arose, he wanted to have something to cover his escape.

He turned toward the forest and entered the woods.

He needed to find a landmark, anything that could be able to tell him more about his location. Being it the reality, the game or anything between, as long as he knew where he was, he could plan an appropriate approach.

Walking in the forest wasn't as hard as he thought it would have been. He was able to move with much more freedom than he used to, and he had yet to experience any symptom of fatigue.

He went on looking for signs of any kind; signals left for travelers to indicate a path, a small road or a campfire. His first priority was to find and observe other people without being spotted.

He kept walking through the woods, surrounded by trees of all sizes. Some were surprisingly high, towering over the others by tens of meters, while others were even smaller than him. Wherever he looked, he couldn't find more than two plants of the same species in a single place; every point of that forest was completely unique.

He could see the dens of small animals and nests high in the trees. On most trunks there were moss, ivy, mushrooms and other plants he never had occasion to see. A large majority of the surrounding vegetation was completely unknown to him.

While he was walking and trying to identify the local flora, he finally came across the thing he was looking for; a trail.

It was a small route, merely made of small rocks that covered a width of about two meters. The grass that came out of it was shortened by the repeated passage of people over a long period of time and gave little problem to any eventual traveler.

By the look of it, the road wasn't maintained in any meaningful way; however the fact that the grass was so short suggested that many people traveled on it quite often, perhaps even on a daily basis.

He decided to follow the path toward his left. Wherever the road led to, many people were there, and the direction was the one opposite to where he remembered the sea to be.

While walking, he kept theorizing over his current situation. Regardless of how he looked at the problem, he couldn't find any rational explanation. He was sure that he would have been able to tell any dream apart from reality, he didn't even awoke regardless of the sharp pain he felt while punching his leg. He heard it was the perfect way to end a dream, but the fact that he felt no more pain seemed to validate the dream hypothesis even more.

Assuming it was a virtual world and he was still in a game of some kind, it would be both forbidden by the law and even impossible to recreate such a level of details on all the senses. But even assuming what was happening to him was real, there were too many thing he just couldn't believe. As unlikely as it could be, he could accept that something like being teleported in another place or a massive change of his body could happen in an instant without him realizing it and without receiving any explanation; but it was straight out meaningless to make him look like his game avatar.

Both really and fiction had strong points, but they were one the antithesis of the other. The only thing he could do in such a situation was to behave like the theory that could led to the worst possible outcome was the correct one and meanwhile obtain more information to elaborate a more reliable theory. For the moment, he was in a true world.

The flow of his thought was broken by a four meters tall sculpture on a side of the road. It was made out of white stone and poorly crafted. The passage of the sculptor's tools was visible all over the work and many details were merely carved on the surface. It was a massive statue resembling a four-legged beast with wings and a long tail, sitting in a majestic pose on the posterior legs. If he were to trust his knowledge of fantasy settings and symbology, it was clearly the representation of a dragon; there were however some differences between the sculpture and the dragons he had seen in games, legends or other fictional works.

The slender long neck that characterized the fire-breathing beasts wasn't present, the head and the body had so little space between them that he wondered how such an animal could even look behind had it been real. While the legs and the tail were covered in carvings that should have represented scales, the rest of it was covered in disordered little curved lines. It was probably an attempt of the artist to give an impression of fur. It had two pairs of bat shaped wings, the ones closer to the head were larger and there seemed to be scars in many points, the others were instead smaller and were attached between the larger ones. The head reminded him of a huge imposing deer mixed with an alligator, with his jaws larger than normal and the frontal eyes of a predator. On the base there were five symbols displayed in a straight line. They did not seemed to be decorations and strongly resembled some sort of writing; needless to say he had no idea what language that was.

He now had something that resembled the landmark he so strongly desired, and he knew even less than he did before. As far as he knew, that kind of sculptures were neither in the game nor in reality, so his situation had become even more uncertain.

He stopped in front of it and took a closer look. He was in the middle of a forest, walking on a path that many people likely traveled over on a regular basis and there was a four meters tall stature for everyone to see. There had to be a reason.

Saying that an artist made it and just left it there was possible, but it was far from realistic. He couldn't come up with a realistic situation that could force someone to move such a heavy object in a forest and just leave it there.

He stepped down the path and took a look around the sculpture. The vines seemed to be regularly removed. Whatever it was, someone cared for it.

It could have been the grave of an important figure of the past or a shrine for a local god, but there didn't seemed to be anything suggesting an offering of any kind. It probably had some sort of functional purpose. It could have been a territorial delimitation made to inform travelers of a location's beginning which used such creature as a symbol or something close to that, but it was just too big to be only used to warn travelers.

He turned away from the stone dragon and resumed his journey. He would learn more about it once he found someone of the place.

As he kept walking, he analyzed over and over what insights he had up to that moment. There were too many variables he didn't knew and he had so little information, making a theory now was like betting all the money on a single horse and just hoping him to win.

The more he followed the path the more the forest changed. He had been walking for a long time and in the last hour the trees had become father from each other. The moon's light now penetrated deeper into the woods.

It was hard to get a precise idea of the time in the forest. He thought he probably had been there for about two hours, but it could likely have been even more.

As he was lost in his thoughts, he heard something in the distance. It was a continuous sound that reminded him of the noise that couldn't be avoided wherever there were many people in a single place. It seemed to come from not too far behind the road's next turn.

He looked around to make sure no one was there. Once he was certain to be alone, he left the road and entered the woods so that he could follow the path while remaining unseen.

As he got closer to the noise's origin, it became stronger and clearer. He could see the light through the trees and a structure that seemed a long stone wall. He covered the remaining distance leaping from cover to cover until he reached the end of the forest and looked ahead of him.

Now that he was close to the exit, he could clearly see the sky again. It was dark, but the sun seemed to be about to rise. The sound he heard before came from a city a couple of kilometers ahead of him. It was surrounded by high stone walls and he could see two gates from his location. The walls were too high to peek in and the entries were closed. There was no moat around the city, so the entrances were just huge doors about ten meters tall; but they seemed extremely sturdy, made out of thick wood and reinforced with metal. No one was outside at the moment, but there were points protected from the sun and the rain on both sides of each gate that seemed meant to host the guards.

Outside the city there were just tiny farms, divided in lots of small fields and growing many different products. There were no signs of people currently being there.

Even though the city was close, he could hear the sound of people on the inside. Hopefully, the doors would open once the sun rose.

He waited for a change to occur, something that could give him any hint of the place. He remembered to have seen that kind of walls in history books, more precisely the chapters about the southern European middle ages. Under normal circumstances he would have just assumed it was an historical city which served the purpose of touristic attraction, but that didn't went well with neither the closed gates nor the change in his body. He had to wait and see what was inside before making assumptions.

The time went on and the sun still was nowhere to be seen. As he kept waiting, his mind wandered with no precise direction. He thought about the game shut down, about the transfer in the game body, about what he was supposed to do if that day he hadn't been dragged in an unknown place. As he kept thinking about random topics to make the time go faster, a thought crossed his mind with more clarity than the others.

That whole situation would have been way easier if he could at least see the city from above.

His mind remained on that thought for a couple of seconds, unconsciously elaborating the possibility with what he had done recently. It was then that a hypothesis crossed his mind.

He looked under his cloak and saw a little sack attached to his belt. He opened it and slowly placed his hand inside.

He felt something cold there; something that he could only came close to describe as solid smoke. He took it out of the sack and looked at his hand; he was holding a sphere made of black mist, leaving behind a track of darkness wherever he moved it.

Like he had done so many times in the game, he used the sphere to draw four V shaped symbols in the air. Once he was done, he placed the mist back into his sack.

He hesitated before pulling back his hand. Looking at the symbols he drew unnaturally floating in the air without loosing their shapes made him briefly question his decision.

As he finally took the hand back, the drawings morphed in the four birds he saw not too long ago.

The newly formed crows landed on the ground and looked at him, awaiting orders. They were undoubtedly the same [Odin's crows] he used to summon in the game, but there was something different about them.

They were alive.

A creature summoned in the game, with the exception of golems and similar monsters, had a couple of animations that were meant to give an impression of life; however a creature rarely had more than three animations. The crows in front of him were instead constantly moving without following any sort of pattern. He could even see them breath and close their eyes at irregular intervals.

Another detail was that they were each different from one another.

He had summoned the same creature four times, as such in the game he should have been in front of four identical creatures. But the ones in front of him had slight dissimilarities between them. One kept his head a little lower than the others, one had the feathers slightly longer, one had darker feathers than the other three and the remaining one was keeping his head slightly on one side.

They weren't just alive; they were four entirely different creatures.

He weighted the options. He had actually been able to summon creatures from a game in the real world using an item. The question now was, were they magical crows that obeyed his commands or just four birds staring at him?

"[Fly: Pattern 01D. Direction: 12. Distance: 300]"

The four monsters opened their wings and left the ground, fling toward the city. As they went away, he tried to come up with a way of using the summons' special skill.

"[Share senses]."

He said the words, and nothing happened. He couldn't help but to feel disappointed, he had hoped it would have been easier.

He then tried to think the command instead of pronouncing it aloud; but the result was the same as before. He tried to focus on the crows and to think about their senses, but the result was still the same. Nothing.

He tried other approaches. Theoretically, if he was able to summon them, there had to be a way to use their special skills.

He focused on the individual crows. He tried to speak to them in his head. He tried to imagine the result he wanted and many other approaches he read about in countless fantasy books.

Every approach produced the same result. Nothing.

In the end, there seemed to be no way to use the crows' skill. Regardless of how much he wanted it, it was… want it?

He willed himself to see through the crows' senses with no intermediary passages or complex methods. He just tired to use the ability without thinking about how the ability itself worked or how he controlled it.

Then, the skill triggered.

He was still watching the city from where he stood, but at the same time other images appeared in his mind, images seen from above.

Through the crows he could hear the sound of the wind, see what they saw. He could feel the cold of the night sky above him, as well as everything the summons experienced. He felt like he himself was flying, unbounded to the ground and free. It was likely the best thing he had ever experienced in his entire life, flying in the sky.

After a few moments of joy he focused back to the task at hand, gathering information.

The layout was like the one he remembered from history books. The city was divided in multiple circles, result of its slow but continuous expansion.

The inner circle was higher than the other ones. Built on a small hill, it stood above the remaining rings. It was the old city and the part that in the past used to host the ancestors of the now important members of society, as well as the structures and locations that allowed the city to function.

The ring below was the result of the city's first expansion. Usually they were built due to the increasing city's wealth, which caused people to flow in. The layout was ordered and relatively livable. There was space between buildings and the streets were large enough to host markets and let carts pass through. It was the side of the city build to host a large number of people that let money flow in.

The last ring was, unsurprisingly, the worst section of the city. While the first was reserved for the rich historical families and the second was for welcomed people, the third ring was for the ones that had nothing to offer.

It was a layout so widespread in the middle ages that he could even describe every ring with a single glance.

He gave individual mental commands to the crows and made them land in different areas of the city. One for the lower rings, two for the first.

Saying that the first ring was clean were strong words, but at the very least there weren't excrements on the ground and he didn't feared the crows to sink in the mud.

The buildings were made in stone and seemed quite ancient, probably there wasn't anything built in the last half century.

A few people were going around the badly illuminated streets and some windows were being opened, eager to welcome the rising sun at any moment.

What he immediately noticed about the city was something he suspected from the moment he discovered to be able of summoning the [Odin's crows]. The lights on the streets were torches attached to the walls, the people walking on the streets were wearing large colorful and anachronistic clothes with feathers and jewels, the houses had no light coming from within and there wasn't any sing of objects created after the first industrial revolution.

It wasn't a city from the middle ages; it was a city of the middle ages.

In the center of the plaza, on the top of a high pillar, there was a replica of the monolith he saw earlier in the forest. Saying replica did not made the sculpture justice, it was definitely the other way around.

This one was a true masterpiece, perfect in all details and with proportions that were more realistic than the other. Instead of carvings, the sculpture was finely crafted and the crude stone had been replaced with marble.

He made the crow fly on one horn and from there he looked at the other structures. He was surrounded by highly decorated majestic constructions, buildings that gave the impression of being social gathering zones and administrative structures. That was very likely to be the most important zone of the high ring.

He ordered the second crow to fly thought he streets and look at what kinds of people were there. The few he saw were all humans; none of which wearing masks, hoods or covering his face in any way. If he were to go there, he would undoubtedly stand out.

He kept the crow searching for peculiar people and in the meantime he shifted to the one on the middle ring.

The streets were dirty, but it was still possible to walk without sinking in the mud. The scent of the excrements at the corners of the streets was barely detectable, covered by the strong smelling goods the merchants were proudly exposing.

He moved the crow from stand to stand, looking at the goods in display.

He saw a large majority of the merchants arrange vegetables, most of which he had never seen before, while a smaller portion of them sold unusual goods of every kind. He saw a carpenter selling his craft, a merchant with pots of every size and shape and even a stand filled with colorful spices.

He landed on it and looked at them closely; colorful plants hanged attached to strings, wooden walls separated small mountains of powder with different colors and there were plates filled with herbs of many shapes.

His crow barely managed to dodge a rock thrown by the angered merchant and flew toward a higher location as menaces were shouted at him.

From there, he took another look at the market.

Many people were heading in the same direction, toward a large construction at the end of the street. He made the crow fly closer to take a better look at it.

Close to another replica of the same sculpture, he saw the structure surrounded by a constantly increasing crowd. It was entirely made of wood, but even if it was poorly made, it gave the impression of having been there for a long time.

It had a simple design; a large base a little more than one meter tall, five thick poles with an height of about three meters on the top and a not very sturdy looking small stair which connected the base to the ground.

It wasn't however the structure which caught his attention the most, but something next to it; something that made him realize his careful approach had paid off.

There were about a dozen large cages, roughly one meter high and two meters wide, each one containing about nine people in rags and shackles.

It was clear what the stand's goods were; slaves.

He made the crow fly on the roof of a nearby building so that he could observe undisturbed what was about to happen. If in that place slavery was an accepted concept, he had to know as much as he could about it.

He lastly moved his attention to the crow in the outer ring.

The streets were covered in mud so deep that he was glad the crows could fly; even if he was only observing thought their senses, he had no intention of touching the ground as long as they were connected.

Excrements of every kind were left everywhere, even in the middle of the streets. Many people were sleeping outside rotten large boxes made of wood that, according with how generous the observer was with the definition of building, could be called homes.

A malnourished man whose scent of alcohol was somehow even stronger than the surrounding stench was looking at his crow as if it was the most delicious thing he had seen in months. He made the crow fly away before the man could get too close; he then headed toward a structure slightly taller than the others.

Only one word came to his mind.

Slums.

As the sun rose, light slowly irradiated the city. The night's end was the beginning of the activity for any medieval population, and that seemed to be the case even there.

People left buildings in all the rings as their day had begun.

He shifted his attention to the crows in the central ring. If he was to find information about that place, the rich part of the city was the right place to start. Knowledge was a luxury few could afford in the Middle Ages; it was likely the same there.

The first ring had way more people going around than he expected. He looked for someone important among them, someone in charge, someone who had to know more than the others.

It didn't take long for him to find a suitable candidate to be his man. In an area where people ran in every direction with scrolls in hand and hurried expressions on their faces; a man walking leisurely, holding nothing, with more jewels than anyone else he saw that day, followed by a gorgeous girl and four armed men carrying spears, stood incredibly out from the others. As he commanded one crow to follow him, he kept analyzing this target.

He had a physique that strongly resembled an egg, with short arms and legs, though he was still a human. It was unclear where the head ended and the shoulders started; the neck was marked by a medallion that probably hanged down from it. He wore a red outfit with golden adornments that made him look more like a Christmas decoration than a man.

However, external appearance aside, it was the behavior of those around him that showed his social influence.

Everyone, as hurried as they seemed, found the time to stop and greet him with the upmost respect. They all followed the same steps: approach, remove whatever garment they kept on their heads, slightly bow looking at the floor and saying, "Greetings, lord Obister".

He followed him until the lord slowly reached the walls that separated the inner ring from the middle one. Once he reached the gate, all the guards kneeled in the same way he saw dozens of times. Mere seconds after his arrival, the man in the shiniest armor approached him. After a brief discussion, the captain gave the lord additional guards and opened the gate, watching the group going to the other side.

He made the second crow fly up to gain an overall view of where they were heading. If they kept following that path, they should reach… the slavers.

He shifted his attention back to the crow at the slave auction, the plaza was filled with people and men were opening the cages behind the structure. They were about to start.

The lord arrived shortly after and had his escort open a passage for him. They stopped a few meters away from the structure. A few people were between them and the slaves; it probably wasn't appropriate for a noble to show himself too eager of something. The girl following him was standing at his right, just two steps behind him, while the guards were forming a strong protective circle around him to prevent others from approaching.

The slavers took the first set of goods from the cages and led them on the structure. They forced them with their backs to the poles and tied their hands behind, blocking them in position. One of them tried to fight back, desperately pushing the slavers with all his might with little to no result, while the other slaves had already completely lost their will.

That slave wasn't like the others, he wasn't like anything he had ever seen. He wasn't human. He was a goat man, a satyr.

He couldn't stop looking at him. Everything he had seen of that world was mostly possible, but tied to a pole there was an inhuman creature. And most of the crowd seemed to be completely unsurprised.

One of the slavers went to the border of the structure and faced the crowd. He was wearing an opened blue long jacket with far too many buttons. He had some jewels that gave the impression of being poorly crafted imitations, and a diagonal scar went from his forehead to the cheek. He was dressed better than the others, but it seemed to be more like a costume than actual clothes.

He raised his hands to get the crowd's attention and begun his speech.

"Greetings, my dear costumers. I thank you all for coming here today to the slave auction of Vajar Keel. We are offering you the best slaves from all around the continent, from the dwarves of Azerlisia to the agrandians elves; if it walks on this land, we can provide it.

Today, we are all graced by the presence of our esteemed governor; Lord Obister Vaf Ancool."

Cheers and clapping rose from the audience and the governor raised a hand to calm the surrounding people while smiling warmly to all of them.

Meanwhile, he made a mental note of the supposed existence of elves, dwarves and the geographical locations just mentioned. Second-hand information from an unreliable source in that context was akin to garbage, but he would verify them later if given the chance.

Once the cheers came to an end, the speaker resumed his introduction.

"Today my friends, today is not just any day. Today is the day that you are presented with an opportunity you will only get once in a lifetime. Today, it's the day we are offering you the rarest slave there is."

Lord Obister, up to that moment seemingly uninterested in the surroundings, gave to the auctioneer his full attention. As much as the governor was trying to hide his desires, it was clear he was interested in what was about to be introduced.

"Far from here, in a mysterious country known as the Slane Theocracy, there are men capable of wonders."

In the crowd where was no one whose sight wasn't fixed on the structure. It seemed that many people knew exactly what the product was, and the speech served well the purpose of increasing their hype as much as possible.

"Those men have stepped in the realm of dragons. They are the only creatures in the world able to do what only our lords are capable of. They are… magicians"

Sounds of stupor rose from the audience as the auctioneer stepped aside to show the slaves to the crowd. On the poles there were five slaves. Aside for the satyr, they were all humans. The one in the middle, the interest of everyone in that place, was a helpless young girl.

She was about sixteen years old, though she seemed a couple years older. She had long blond hairs and blue eyes. Her clothes, which revealed too much of her body to be tasteful, were most definitely an idea of the slavers to make her look more appealing.

Her eyes were red for the tears and she blankly stared at the void, completely broken in the spirit.

"This attractive young girl is what they call a "Cleric". She swore herself to her gods and they gave her the power to heal any wound. With her at your side there is nothing you shall fear, even on the brink of death she will rescue you.

The power of the gods is yours to take. Today, one of you will return home bringing with him the rarest slave of the continent."

He paused for a moment, making sure all eyes were on him and that his words were lingering in everyone's thoughts. He looked satisfied at the results of his speech and begun the auction.

"The starting price is 300 gold coins."

Offers begun the very moment he finished the sentence. Everyone was eager to obtain the magical slave. Lord Obister kept raising his hand to increase his offer while other wealthy-looking men answered by increasing in the same way. The price had increased several times the original value in just a couple of minutes and didn't seem to be slowing down. The auctioneer knew how to do his job.

The governor raised his right fist over the crowd.

"Incredible my dear friends. His Excellency, lord Obister Vaf Ancool, have offered 500 gold coins more than the last offer, reaching the outstanding price of 4000 gold coins. It's the first time in the city's history. What an outstanding man.

Everyone, let's show lord Obister all our admiration."

A loud cheer arose from the crowd and went on for minutes. The governor did nothing to stop them, his offer was probably beyond common sense and he would take in every second go glory.

Once the noise lowered enough to let the auction resume, the speaker faced the only other buyer wealthy enough to still be competing for the product.

"Lord Gerber, it would appear the governor has decided to win this auction no matter the cost. What do you wish to do?"

Everyone's attention went on a well-dressed man holding a cane. His eyes were crossed by doubt as he looked at the girl bound to the pole. He hesitated a moment before acting; but when he rose his fist, his eyes were filled with determination.

"Incredible gentlemen. Lord Gerber el Nehim has beaten the newly established record of Lord Obister, reaching the outstanding offer of 4'500 gold coins. This man is becoming a living legend my dear friends. Let's show how proud we are of him."

While everyone in the crowd was cheering at him, he shifted his focus on the other lord. The governor wasn't cheering; neither were the guards or the girl at his side. His face was so red that almost matched his clothes. He couldn't allow that, and the auctioneer noticed too.

The slaver made eye contact with the governor and displayed a smile that could have been considered beautiful had all the teeth been in the right place. He called an underling that was next to him and whispered something in his ears, covering the content of the message with the crowd's noise. As everyone's attention was on lord Gerber, the henchman approached lord Obister's group completely ignored by everyone else.

The lord made sign to his guards to let him pass through and he listened to his boss' message.

In the meantime the cheer had finally ended and the speaker resumed his job, buying time for his man to complete the task.

"I have been doing this job since I was just a boy. But as long as I can remember, I have never seen such an epic auction. This city has truly been blessed with such extraordinary individuals."

The crowd had long reached the point where they would cheer whenever the auctioneer made any form of compliment. This additional interruption gave the henchman the time he needed to leave the governor's side and let him think about the message.

The slaver made once more eye contact with the lord; and as he smiled, he concluded his speech.

"But let's now see how such a legendary contest is going to end. Dear governor, do you have another offer or do you declare yourself defeated?"

If before he was being subtle in his words, now he had completely given up in hiding his intentions. The crowd went silent; all eyes were on the lord. He made a theatrical half step forward, cleared his voice and concluded the auction for the cleric with a dramatic tone.

"I offer 6'000 gold coins"

His voice was firm and clear, perfectly audible from everywhere in the silent plaza.

For a long moment, no one spoke; it seemed that no one could even realize what had just been told. The auctioneer did not loose his smile; on the contrary it became even larger. Then, a man shouted. The others were quick to follow.

The crowd was cheering so loudly that by comparison before there was silence. Lord Gerber lowered his head, both his hands tightly closed into fists. Lord Obister had a satisfied expression as he watched his defeated opponent.

In his personal opinion, the auction was tricked. The slavers probably accepted an offer from the governor and some privilege in exchange for paying the difference between what he said and what he was willing to pay.

The slavers untied the girl and brought her to the new owner. A guard grabbed the chain and led her inside the human ring, so that the governor could test his new investment.

He gestured one of the guards to come closer and ordered him to wound himself. The guard then removed his gauntlet and he sliced his short sword to create a cut over his palm. The other guard pulled the chain to make the girl come closer.

She looked blankly at the wound, then raised her hands and placed them close to the guard's injury. Then she invoked the spell.

"[Heal light wounds]"

A pure light originated from her hands and irradiated the injury. The blood immediately stopped coming out of the hand and the cut closed in a matter of seconds. Everyone attention was on the spell they had never seen before, witnessing a miracle with their own eyes.

The crowd had fell in complete silence since the moment the girl raised her hands; as for him, he hadn't lost a single instant either. It was exactly as it was in the game: the same gestures, the same animation and the same result. One spell he knew in the game had just been used in real life.

As the governor left the slave auction, he switched his visual back to his own body and looked as his hands. If the girl was able to use a game spell and he was able to use game items, maybe he was also able to use his character's skills.

As he did before with the crows, he thought of another game skill. He chose one he used often, one that wouldn't attract undesired attention.

"[Dark world mantle]"

A cloud of darkness generated from his hands and enveloped him. Now covered in magical darkness, he activated the [Shadow glide V] class skill and raised a couple of steps from the ground. Then he flew up, rising high in the sky.

He looked below. He saw the exact same thing he saw earlier through the crows' eyes, but at the same time it was entirely different. He was actually flying.

It was the same difference there was between seeing a landscape and a photo, between calling someone and seeing him in person. It was incredible.

He flew toward the city; and once above it, he kept flying. He activated all his speed increasing bonuses and watched the ground below him changing so quickly that he had mere moments to look at something before it disappeared from his view.

He saw forests, lakes, mountain chains and plains. He flew above large cities, rivers, deserts and swamps. He had never moved that fast, not even in his old world.

He felt free, like never before.

As he flew in the sky, he thought once more about what had happened. How he ended up alone in an unknown world that allowed game mechanics to function and… Was he alone?

He stopped in the middle of the sky.

Why did he think so? If he was there, other players might be as well. At the very least some of his guild mates could.

He took out from below his cloak the golden medallion they used to communicate. He kept it in his hands and thought about whom to call. He wanted to contact someone he was sure would have waited until the end of the game without disconnecting, possibly someone that had already gathered as much information as possible on the current situation.

As he activated the medallion magical effect with a name in mind, light formed above it. It kept changing form, waiting for the one on the other side to answer.

He spent a long moment like that, waiting to know if he was alone or if someone else shared his condition. Depending on the answer, he would take different approaches on the situation. If he was alone he would have to bear all the risks and work with only his resources, but in return he could also take all the decisions by himself. If there were other people, they could share resources and responsibilities, making it however harder to act independently. He also had to consider if the others were people he could work together with or not.

The medallion suddenly took a fixed form, creating a human like shape on it that interrupted the flow of his thoughts. The creature showed by the light was a hybrid between a human and a crow. He was wearing a long robe that covered his whole body and on his heads there were several marks. He was holding an open book in his hands and there were several others floating around him.

After a short moment of silence, the tengu wizard spoke to him.

"Raal Saar? Is that you?"


	3. Chapter 3: Confrontation

Chapter 3: Confrontation

"Is there anything concerning you, my lord?"

He turned to face whoever had spoken.

Hundreds of books were randomly placed on every plane surface of the room, making it nearly impossible to even see the floor. Small piles of magic items rose up from the chaos accumulated through the years, obstructing any sort of passage that could connect his desk to the entrance door. Beside it, standing in the only tidy square meter of floor, there was his NPC as usual.

He couldn't see anyone who might have spoken.

He answered to the void mostly out of habit.

"No. Just an hunch."

He was about to turn his attention back on the table when something completely unexpected happened.

"Can I do anything to be of use, my lord?"

The same voice as before asked another question. The NPC asked the question.

A game character made out of code and data had done something it was not programmed to do.

He took a second look at her. She was a young girl just out of her teens, with deep blue eyes and brown hairs gathered in long twin tails by two black ribbons. She was wearing a long dark red dress, covered by a black robe decorated with golden details; and she was looking at him with a deeply concerned expression.

It took him quite a few moments to realize the situation. A question had been asked; he needed to answer.

He desperately thought of something to say. Anything would have been better than remaining in silence. Right now he needed to remain alone for a moment to reorder his thoughts. After a short hesitation, he broke the silence saying the first thing he could think of.

"I'd like something to eat."

The girl made a surprised expression, he had surely messed something up. Why did he ask for food in the first place? What was he even thinking? Anything would have been better than that.

"As you wish, my lord."

She bowed slightly at him and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Once alone with himself and still confused by what had just happened, he immediately clambered toward a mirror-like magical item on top of a pile and looked at himself. He was wearing a long black robe that covered his entire body; only the hands and the head were visible.

His hands were deep black, ending in sharp nails that were too similar to claws to be human's. On his back he felt two large objects attacked to his body; a pair of wings, remaining closed to not hinder his movements but ready to be used at any moment. His head was a mixture of the ones of a human and a crow; it was longer and narrower than a human's, and it had an extremely short beak and frontal yellow eyes.

Several marks shined on him; a spherical one broken by straight lines over his left eye, together with one made by multiple curved lines in a spiral on his right hand, were the only ones visible, but he could feel more on his body.

Except for the face and his hands, he was able to feel feathers all over himself. At first he hesitated, but it was impossible to not recognize the creature reflected in the mirror. The familiar monster he saw in the reflection was his game avatar.

He was about to scream when he heard steps outside the room approaching the door. He left the mirror and moved back the desk as quickly as the piles of items and books allowed. When the girl returned in the room, he pretended to have spent the entire time reading a book he grabbed at random.

"I beg your forgiveness for making you wait, my lord. The chefs have already begun preparing your meal and it will be brought to you the moment it is up to your standards.", said the girl bowing.

Up to his standards? Just who did she believed him to be? And how did she manage to do everything that fast?

He decided to answer in a way he hoped to be appropriate and, more importantly, short in order to avoid missteps.

"Very well." he said while lifting his gaze from the upside down volume and facing her.

A proud expression suddenly appeared on her face.

"Your every wish is my command."

She returned where she was standing earlier and fixed again her gaze upon him.

There were many things he desired to do. He wanted to scream for example, or cry, or slam his head against something hard or do any of the theatrical things people usually does when they are desperate or in panic. But he couldn't. The girl's presence in the room was forcing him to maintain his composure. Had he been alone he definitely wouldn't have found the mental strength to maintain a calm façade.

He looked at the window behind him. Outside it was dark, but there was no way he wouldn't be able to recognize what was outside the room. It was the Killian's flying castle; their guild base, as well as his location the moment the game ended.

He was in the game. He was actually in the game. It wasn't like a delayed shut down or anything like that. His body felt real, and so everything around him. It was something he often fantasized about, but he never brought himself to think it could actually happen. He thought about it more like a novel scenario, not a real option. But apparently there he was. He was in the game and his NPCs came to life. They seemed to believe him their lord, or at the very least the girl in front of him did.

He had to know more about the situation, more than what he could discover remaining in his room. As such, there was only one place it made sense to go.

His hands were shaking. He tried to bite his lips to calm himself down, but now that he had a beak for mouth it was no longer possible. He moved his arms behind his back and gripped his fists to pluck up courage, but he could still feel his wings trembling on his back.

He looked toward the girl. She was still standing in the same identical position she was when he first spoke to her a few minutes ago.

"…"

He realized he didn't remembered her name only after they made eye contact, and now she was looking at him and waiting for his words. He hadn't been under that much pressure in years.

That wasn't the moment to panic. He had to improvise. She called him "my lord" multiple times and obeyed a command; he would try to role-play his way out of it as well as avoiding the "name" subject. It was the best thing to do, or at least he hoped so.

"I desire to visit the library."

The girl bowed once more.

"As you wish, my lord. I shall escort you there."

He had hoped to go alone, but now he was stuck with someone observing his every move. Had he remembered anything about the girl other than levels and fighting abilities he might have been able to convince her to leave him alone, but he couldn't recall anything about her background.

The girl opened the door for him and they left the room. As she was leading him to the library, he thought about how he got to the situation he was in. They were all working for the guild leader's project until just before midnight and they finished it about ten minutes before the log out. Everyone said their farewells to the others and most of them logged out. He decided to remain until the very end, and now was there. Hopefully there might have been someone else that waited for the shut down like him. If it was so, then he might not be alone.

Regardless of what the situation was, he had to know more about it. Understanding the problem is the first step to find the solution. In the library his guild kept important and extremely useful items and NPCs. It was there that they went when they needed to gather intelligence about the surrounding area. This time it might not have been for a quest or to repel intruders, but it still was the best place he could think of given the situation.

The two of them kept moving through the hallways. The walls were adorned with colossal paintings illustrating salient phases of Yggdrasil's lore. Extremely finely crafted furniture placed against the walls made him wonder how such delicate objects could even exist without breaking. Even though he always thought the game to be extremely realistic, everything he was seeing was extremely more detailed than he remembered.

They went on until a large door became visible. The only way to describe it was massive. It was so huge that he felt intimidated by its sheer size. On both sides there were two white capes, the highest leveled spawn the guild was able to produce.

They had reached the library's entrance.

He kept following he girl until they arrived a couple of steps from the guards. Compared to how he felt when the NPC beside him had been able to speak and move freely, the fact that the four guards were as still as statues made him uncomfortable.

The girl made a half step forward and addressed them.

"Lord Govan Lune desires to enter the library. Open the door."

The white capes slightly tilted their heads forward in a bow and then touched with their hands the glyphs carved in the wall behind.

The door slowly opened, revealing them the sea of books that was beyond. The white capes stood on the sides and waited for them to pass through.

Once they stepped through, he saw monumental bookshelves filled with a nearly uncountable amount of books. From the dome in the ceiling it was possible to see the stars above, and an incredible chandelier representing the real world's solar system produced so much light that he would have been briefly blinded by its radiance had he been in his real body.

Even though the average rooms in the castle were about four meters tall and all were extremely spacious to allow inside combat, they paled in comparison with the library. The ceiling was thirty meters from the ground and the shelves were displayed to make impossible determining the room's actual size. They were only a few meters shorter than the ceiling, with many spiral staircases as the only way to reach the higher sections.

When they projected it, the objective was to make anyone inside feel overwhelmed and disoriented. Now that he was seeing the fruit of their work with his own eyes for the first time, the result was way superior to what they had first planned for.

His guild wasn't among the bigger ones, but it wasn't small either. Before the shutdown announcement they counted 157 members, and everyone had contributed to strengthen the base.

Every member had projected at least a couple of rooms or a few NPCs.

Some worked together to make combined project, like the one in front of him; others implemented smaller private ideas on their own, a few implemented someone else's idea by adding details or NPCs; sometimes people just bought space and gave it to others.

Because of that, the guild base had been an incredible mess.

Once they stopped to create new rooms, they spent months rearranging them to make everything more ordinate. They found a way to include everyone's projects and to make them effective to the guild base; they then filled the empty zones left with standard rooms.

The final result was more like a court rather than a castle.

While he was lost in his thoughts, an old looking figure falteringly approached him and respectfully bowed.

"My lord! What brings you here at such a late hour? How can this humble servant of yours be of any use?"

His pleasantly surprised voice was feeble, hard to tell if it was because of their location or due to his age. Looking at his fragile figure, he felt like the elder's bones would have broken under his own weight hadn't it been for the wooden cane he was holding onto. The scarce hairs had left him partially bald, with untrimmed eyebrows and a small goatee coming down his chin. Dozens of wrinkles covered the serene expression on his face, with semi closed blue eyes calmly looking at him and two pointed ears identifying him as a part of the elven race.

"I have come to see the weavers."

The head librarian nodded at the words and slowly begun to walk, helping himself with his cane while leading the way toward their destination.

As they proceeded through the immense forest of bookshelves, he found himself wondering just how many books each of them contained. Hundreds? Thousands? Or perhaps even more?

Their guild was called "Kings of Azoth", though they usually shortened it in "Azoth". They formed the guild with the purpose of exploring all the worlds and discovering every secret of the game, as such the name "Kings of Azoth" served the purpose of reminding them that their ultimate goal was knowledge. They completed every quest they had found and never threw anything away. This lead to them amassing a needlessly huge amount of items they had no use for. Books constituted a good portion of such items; basically every time you killed a monster with wizard levels, in the drops, you were likely find at least one book item. Someone once suggested just keeping a couple of copies of every book and selling the rest, but in the end a better idea had been chosen.

After slowly following the head librarian for many minutes, their destination finally appeared in front of them. It was a large empty area at the crossroad of two shelves, and in the middle of it there were three figures working together. They were wearing three identical dark robes that concealed everything that was below, the hands were the only visible things that emerged from their clothes. Hadn't it been for the different symbols on the mask they were wearing, differentiating them would have likely been impossible.

One of them was sitting at a reel, while the other two were working with a loom. Those instruments were needlessly elaborate and exaggeratedly decorated, to the point where functionality was probably sacrificed for appearance's sake.

They were the weavers.

They didn't seemed to notice their arrival; they kept their gazes focused on the job they were performing without ever looking elsewhere.

He didn't wanted to disturb them, but he needed to ask them about the situation. He had however no idea of how to attract their attention.

The head librarian solved the problem for him, softly hitting the floor with the tip of his cane. The three figures shifter their attention toward the source of the sound and finally noticed the three of them.

As they recognized him among the visitors, they stood up and bowed at him.

Up to that moment, every person he had met had bowed; it was too unusual for him to be kept in such high regard. It wasn't unpleasant, but it still felt strange.

The weaver that was sitting at the loom stepped forward and spoke first.

"My lord, you do us honor in coming here."

"We are ready to obey your commands."

"How can we be of use?"

Govan Lune was briefly dumbfounded by how they spoke one sentence each. He hoped with all his heart that it was still possible to read the character's background profiles from the thrones room. Then he proceeded with his question.

"Not too long ago, around midnight, an unknown change occurred to the castle and all its inhabitants. What can you tell me about it?"

The three weavers answered in the same way as they did before, without even needing to consult each other. He found himself wondering if they had prepared themselves before or if they were just improvising.

"We felt nothing my lord, but something has indeed happened."

"In the divination we just performed we discovered that our surroundings have changed."

"We were trying to confirm the situation around us, but we still haven't been able to produce results."

So that meant the change wasn't limited only to himself, the castle and the NPCs; but the surrounding area had also been altered.

"On which world are we?"

For the first time the weavers hesitated before answering.

"… My lord…"

"We cannot identify the world we are currently in."

"It seems we have entered a different and unknown world."

That wasn't good news. If he had been in the game, he was confidant he would have been able to avoid dangers with no problems. But if he was in a new world that he knew nothing about, he might get killed without even having time to react.

There was one other thing he needed to know at all costs. Was he alone?

"How many of my comrades have followed us in this new world?"

The three deeply bowed as one. He could almost feel the uneasiness coming from them.

"We ask for your forgiveness, my lord."

"Our power does not suffice to locate the great kings."

"We are unable to execute your order."

It was true. Now that he though about it, he made an impossible request. The weavers were three NPCs with both identical equipment and levels, specialized in information magic and data gathering. Because of their levels in the [Norn] race, they had the [Keeper of fate] racial ability that boosted information magic to an impressive degree. The same applied also for the [Prophet] and [Watcher] classes, as well as all of their other levels. But even though they gave them a total of two divine-class items to boost beyond limit their magic, it still was him and his friends the ones that programmed them; they had individually developed specific countermeasures ever since the weavers first proved their potential.

There were still methods to bypass their countermeasures, but they required time.

Govan Lune placed a hand below his vest and grabbed the golden medallion they used to communicate.

"Cast a [Widened heightened magic: Locate named object] on this medallion."

He felt extremely embarrassed speaking in game terms with people outside his friends. Since he was in the guild base it had felt natural for him and he did so without thinking, but that was a terrible idea.

Luckily the weavers bowed and the one in the front took the item with both hands, like if she was afraid of ruining it. The norns then returned to their divine items and begun chanting the long list of spells necessary for a well executed divination. The medallion shined and the ritual begun. The one moving the reel constantly produced an ethereal and semitransparent string, which another grabbed and placed in the loom.

[Locate named object] was one of the most annoying spells an information-specialized magic caster could master. It allowed to find all objects in an area with the same original name as the one of a given object touched by the caster. It was just a second level spell, not even a very strong one, and considering how many different items there were it could rarely be used for anything different than tracking a stolen item.

It was however an entirely different matter if you knew the enemy's equipment and possessed even a single copy of one of his items. Players could shield themselves from information magic, but the same result was extremely hard to replicate for the individual objects one carried. By using meta-magic abilities to raise the spell's tier up to 10th and widening the AOE, it becomes a terrible threat.

The only downsides of the ritual are that it is still based on a second-tier spell; as such it could only give the item's location. The time needed for the ritual to be completed also rose proportionally with the scanned area. Using the same synergy for similar situations in the past had easily required more than two hours.

He could have just used the item to call one of his comrades, but he chose not to due to the absurd situation he was in. The medallion functioned similarly to a phone; one would connect to the other and allow communication, but there was no way to know if the call would be answered or if the other wasn't in a situation which didn't allowed him to speak. Considering he could potentially have to call each and every one of his friends, the NPCs might react unpredictably.

For now it was better to see how many of his friends there were and then figure out who to call based on where he was.

While he was watching the weavers working with the ethereal string with hypnotic precision, he realized that he could have to remain standing for hours.

He felt that it would be too unnatural for him, for anyone, to just stand in the middle of a room waiting for hours. He needed something to do until the ritual was finished.

He shifted once more his attention toward the bookshelves around him. He was in the guild's library; he would just do what he always came there to do.

He turned to face the head librarian.

"Fetch me a copy of all the books concerning magic theory."

The old elf bowed and helping himself with his cane he slowly accompanied him toward a massive wooden table.

Govan Lune sat down and observed the head librarian slowly raising in front of him the hand not holding the cane. He extended two fingers, pointing them toward the ceiling, and then an intense green light enveloped his hand.

All around the library, books begun to emit a faint greenish light in response to the librarian's ability. They then left their places on the shelves and begun to float in the air, flying toward them from every corner of the room.

He always found the flight of countless books something spectacular. It was like if an immense flock of paper birds had come to life and begun to fly around to, in the end, position themselves in ordinate piles on the table.

It reminded him once more why they choose to keep all the books in a library-like room instead of selling them.

The head librarian was one of the lv100 NPCs created to guard key positions against enemy attacks. He had five levels in the [High librarian] job class, which gave him the [Move books: V] skill.

That class was rarely if ever picked by anyone; and as the group of secret-hungry people their guild was made of, they had been eager to discover its hidden potential.

In the end, it had proved itself to actually be disadvantageous for a player, since it heavily relied on the amount of book items in the area; but for battles with the appropriate field conditions, it was a powerful class. Literally able to turn a sea of useless items in a single, huge and lethal weapon, able to quickly crush unprepared intruders like flies. It basically was extremely high-level telekinesis strengthened by the use of books as a medium.

They decided to design the head librarian as a weak elderly person, easily able to blend in the room filled with other similar-looking lower leveled NPCs. Any invader which had ever thought of him as a background decoration had reached zero HP without even being able to put up a fight, attacked from all directions and completely unable to identify his opponent.

The ability the elf was currently using was a lower variant of that skill, [Move books: II]. It allowed to select and move just the books with previously given tags or through common criterions, like title and author, moving them to a selected location.

The guild used the head librarian both as a trap and search engine.

Once the books were all placed on the table, all in ordinate piles and with the titles facing him, Govan Lune turned toward the elf.

"You have done an excellent job."

The head librarian deeply bowed, facing the ground.

"I'm unworthy of such praises, my lord. I have merely used the power bestowed upon me by the great kings."

Even if he was denying his merits, it was impossible to not notice the flattered tone of his voice.

"You may now return to perform your duties."

The head librarian slowly left, going to do what he could only assume was monitoring and defending the library.

Govan Lune then looked around. The weavers were still working on the ritual, some of the librarians NPCs were casting spells on the books to increase their resistance and, behind him, the twin-tailed girl was still looking at him, ready to swiftly execute every command.

He knew it was in good faith, but being stared for so long had begun to give him some problems; she did it continuously since midnight. He had to make her go doing something else.

"Go inform the chefs of my new location."

The girl smiled proudly.

"Do not worry, my lord. The job of a servant is to satisfy her master every desire before he voices it. Your meal will be presented to you wherever you desire to be."

When? How?

Why couldn't she just leave him alone for a second?

He sighed internally and looked at the book's titles.

Peculiar characteristic of all book items was the lore text. Each one of them contained some chapters written to give depth to the game world. There were many people that enjoyed spending hours just reading them.

However the ones in front of him didn't contain the story of Yggdrasil, but how the designers explained the functioning of a fictional system of magic in a video game.

He sighted internally thinking of what he was actually about to do and then he looked at the titles.

"Advanced spiritual abjuration" from master Abdel Oran, of the black tower.

"Inner workings of elemental conjuration" from Virgil, of the west.

"Parallel calling for inter-planar evocation" from Master Edmund Dates, scholar of Oz.

"Arcane divination theory" from Missa van Eyck, priestess of Mer.

"Fundamentals of epic enchantment magic" from Azur, the eternal walker.

"Glossary of black curses" from lord Belier, of Alderman.

"Studies on necromancy" from count Kudus, protector of the bimadian wastelands.

"Ectoplasmic illusion theory" from Jace, master of the mist citadel.

"Magic for dummies" from Noobslayer666

He paused for a second over the last volume.

It was indeed possible for a player to write and share books, but why there was one like that in the library? He grabbed the volume and opened it at the first page. If it was just a troll, he wanted to waste no time on it; but whatever there was in, he had way more chances to understand it rather than all the other books on the table.

He read the index and the introduction. Then he quickly proceeded through the chapters one after the other. Apparently it was some sort of summary made by reading the game lore. He had already read the descriptions behind his own spells in the past, but that was the first time he actually read the general explanation the developers gave for magic.

The book was filled with data and information of every kind; the author even bothered to include some drawings and tables every couple of pages. Govan spent a long time reading it, with the immovable girl's gaze constantly on his back and lifting his eyes only to check the divination's progress.

Reading in the absolute silence of the library was strange. The only sounds he could hear were the pages he was turning, the spells casted by the librarians and the weavers working at the reel. He wondered if they could hear him breath; in the unbelievable silence that enveloped the room, his exhalations seemed audible in every corner of the library.

Once he finally got to the last page, the weavers were proceeding with the ritual, skillfully crafting the tapestry that would display the map showing the divination's result. Using the [Loom of destiny] made the casting time longer, but he still remembered how surprised he felt when he first discovered the area they were actually able to cover.

He closed the book and quickly glimpsed at the twin-tailed girl behind him.

She was still there, eyes always locked on him. However she wasn't alone anymore, beside her there were six other girls. He recognized them instantly; they were castle maids.

A couple of years ago, a few of the other guild members were obsessed with an item they found in the cash shop store. It allowed bringing real world photos in the game to speed up customization, so they used it to make lots of low-leveled NPCs with the faces of actresses, models and the likes.

The situation quickly escalated, and it got completely out of hand when they decided to make one NPC for every cute girl they found on the net; when the guild master placed them on the guild's "Customization ban list", they had already cost the guild almost two hundreds levels in useless NPCs, half of which were mere lv1.

Luckily in the guild meeting they managed to somewhat solve the problem by making them stay all around the base dressed as maids, nothing more than background decorations.

Many guild members were philosophical about it and found nice being surrounded by many actresses in the history of Hollywood, but the ones more focused in competitive play never digested the idea of how much was wasted over them.

He looked at the twin-tailed girl, unsure of the reason why the castle maids were beside her. As soon as he made eye contact, they all bowed at him.

"My lord. Your meal has arrived."

The maids proceeded toward him and placed the food on an empty area of the table. He wondered just how much time did they waited for him to finish reading, as well as how they arrived without him hearing their steps.

The maids uncovered the trays and an exceptional aroma filled the air. The girl immediately proceeded with describing the dinner's composition.

"My lord. The chefs have prepared an appetizer of caviar canapé, followed by black emperor rice. Next, there is a silver dragon steak with mandragora's salad and leviathan breaded in breadcrumbs. After, there will also be strawberry ice-cream prepared with celestial chimera's milk and a relic quality espresso."

He didn't know what to say, when he asked for food he was thinking more of a sandwich. He took one of the many forks that hoped with all his heart wasn't made of anything more expensive than silver and tried the appetizers. At first he found it weird to eat with a beak, but as soon as he tasted the food he felt overwhelmed by an explosion of flavors.

The maids, as well as the twin-tailed girl, were all looking at him, anxious and eager to hear his opinion.

However he wasn't good with words, so he decided to stick to the "speak as little as possible" plan.

"It's delicious."

They struggled to contain sighs of relief as they finally relaxed, expressing their thanks while bowing once more.

Since midnight, everything around him felt way too exaggerated. He had never received that much attention before. It made him feel… important.

As he ate the most delicious meal of his entire life, he mentally repeated all he read in the book. He managed to get the basis and to understand how magic worked according with the book's logic, but he had yet to cast any spell. He had to try with something easy first, something that could be considered appropriate for whatever the NPCs believed him to be able of and that wouldn't cause any problem if he failed.

Far away from him, a book on the table got his attention. "Fundamentals of telekinetic manipulation" from Mabel Roland, scholar of the southern castle.

Well, it sounded like a good point to start from.

[Silent telekinesis]

In the game, silent spells had the purpose to make sneak attacks, reduce casting time and cast spells in conditions in which the caster couldn't speak; right now, he wholeheartedly thanked the developers for the mechanic's introduction. He had no idea what he would have done if he were to shout a spell's name and then nothing happened.

Casting the spell was way easier than he thought; he felt like if his mind was touching the whole area around him. He could sense his surroundings using what he could only describe as long psychic hands touching everything around him.

He mentally grabbed the book, and watched it floating in the air toward him. He looked at the volume, now firmly in his hands.

He had successfully casted his first spell.

He decided to test the spell's functioning by performing a more complicated task. In the game it only allowed to lift or damage opponents, but now that he was in a different world he wanted to know if the spell had a wider range of options.

He grabbed multiple books and made them float around him, opening them ad flipping through the pages; the spell worked smoothly, exactly like he desired. In the game it would have never been possible to manipulate an object to such degree without damaging it, and now he was doing so with multiple items at the same time. The control he had over the spell felt… incredible. He had never felt that powerful before. He was actually able to use magic; one of his wildest dreams had come true. He was a wizard.

While he was enjoying his newfound powers, a familiar sound broke the silence of the library. It was something he had already heard before, a sound he knew.

He looked in the direction it was coming from and saw his golden medallion, still used by the weavers to locate his guild mates, but now covered with a pale light.

Someone was trying to contact him. Someone else was there. Someone from his guild.

He reached for the medallion and once he held it in his hands the light moved to form a somewhat humanoid shape on it.

The creature that appeared was a cloud of darkness from which, through great effort, was possible to glimpse an expressionless mask. He could somehow distinguish the overall shape of a cloak, but looking at it was the same as looking at a dark cloud of smoke in a humanoid shape. Even though it wasn't a common sight, it wasn't unfamiliar.

"Raal Saar, is that you?"

The one on the other side of the call didn't answer him right away. He had the sensation he was being studied. It however disappeared in mere seconds, and the answer swiftly came.

"Yes, it's me."

He felt like if a great weight had finally disappeared from his shoulders. There was at least someone else there he knew, a guild member and a friend. He had so many questions to ask, so many things to say.

There was however one major obstacle between him and a normal conversation. He looked behind him and saw with the corner of his eye the twin tailed girl together with the castle maids bowing to his friend's projection.

Even though the norns were still working, his every move was being watched.

The conversation was going to be hard. He needed to be careful about how he behaved in front of them while, at the same time, sharing information with his friend.

"I am currently in the castle's library, together with my attendant. What is your current location?"

He hoped that was enough to make Raal Saar get a gist of the situation they were in.

The answer arrived after his friend pondered for a short moment. He now sounded even more cautious than before.

"… My current location is still unknown. I am within five minutes of fast flight south from a sea; the same goes for a large fortified city. Below me there is an extremely wide forest in a mountainous terrain, there are no visible landmarks. To the east there is a mountain range that continue to the south. To the west the forest continues as far as I can see, though the terrain become more uniform further away from my position.

Do you have a way to locate me?"

That wasn't good. The only person he had been able to contact so far was lost somewhere in a world they knew nothing about. He had to make him return there as soon as possible.

"I have already ordered the weavers to locate all of us through our medallions. Once we have located you, I will cast a [Gate] on your position so that you can join us."

Raal Saar nodded, or at least he seemed to do so in the magical darkness; it was hard to understand. But at least he looked all right, and he seemed to have already figured out how to use his game abilities as well.

As he was thinking so, he saw his friend quickly watching behind. He faced Govan Lune once more and rapidly ended the call.

"I have to go, someone is approaching at sustained speed and I have no way to verify his intentions. Come as soon as you can, I will be waiting for you."

Then, the light disappeared from the medallion and silence fell in the room before he could even ask him anything else.

* * *

Raal Saar interrupted the communication and hid the medallion below his cloak. He then looked once more behind him, toward the quickly approaching figure in the far distance.

Since the moment of his arrival he had already seen it a total of three times, but the one currently flying in his direction was far larger than any of the others; and above everything else, alive.

The sculpture in the city's inner ring had indeed proved itself to be the most accurate of the three, but a mere representation couldn't fully convey the presence transmitted by the original.

The four-legged beast was a mixture between a mammal and a reptile, with paws protected by scales and the rest of the body covered with thick fur. The huge bat-like wings violently pushed down air with their every motion, producing a wind so powerful that felt like it could sweep away the forest below. Two massive deer-like horns were rising from the head like millenary trees, his back protected by a forest of smaller horns. The long tail was continuously shifting to balance his flight, working together with a second pair of smaller wings positioned behind the primary ones. The eyes were so intense that seemed to be shining of a reddish light, constantly fixed on him as the dragon rapidly flew in his direction.

His most striking characteristic was however the sheer size. Assuming the dragon had been with the four paws on the ground, he would probably still be at least twenty meters tall. He was unsure about his length, probably twice the height, but the wingspan was above sixty meters.

The building-sized creature closed the distance as Raal Saar remained where he stood. If he were to fly away, the dragon was likely to chase after him; he was already too close for him to escape. He had better chances remaining there immobile and observing how the situation would unfold.

The dragon slowed down as he got closer. Once the two of them were so close to each other that he could feel the bursts of wind caused by his wings, the creature had completely halted.

Using his massive wings to maintain himself into the air while forcing his body to maintain the position, the dragon thoroughly examined him with inquisitive gaze. He was studying him, evaluating whether to attack or not.

Regardless of how much he personally disliked the option, his best chance to survive was to try communicating with the dragon.

If such a powerful predator thought like an animal, then the very existence of cities would have been impossible. Instead of all gathering in a crowded place which offered no protection from above, humans would had better chances to survive if they scattered all around the forest or lived in caves. Since cities both existed and had some form of contact with the creature in front of him, the most logical deduction was for the dragon to be able and perhaps willing to communicate with the humans.

Back in the city everyone spoke in the same language as him, however that meant little. If communicating with the dragon was possible only due to intermediaries, he would end up in a terrible situation. That being the case, he would have to run away from him as fast as he could.

The fact that he wasn't devoured instantly was already a good sign, but every second he didn't acted was a second the dragon had to change his mind.

He remembered the way everyone that morning had greeted the governor, the auctioneer's words regarding dragons and everything he had ever read about introducing oneself. He mimicked them and dressed the dragon in a way he hoped to be correct.

"Greetings, great lord. What do I owe the honor of your presence?"

The creature kept watching him for what he felt like the longest ten seconds of his entire life, but then something resembling a somewhat interested expression appeared on the dragon's face.

"I do not recall ever seeing you in my territory, little one. Who are you?"

The dragon's voice was deep and powerful; with the clear and precise tone of those used to having others execute their every command. Quite surprisingly, it sounded extremely human. It hadn't the bestial and fearsome inflection someone would expect from such a fearsome beast.

Raal Saar held a sight of relief; he wasn't bowing in front of a savage beast about to devour him. He had established a communication and avoided being eaten alive. It wasn't much, but he thought of that as a success considering the alternatives.

The creature had however ignored his question and begun to interrogate him instead, but it was too early to give up on the conversation. In front of him there was likely the most knowledgeable being imaginable, and he was speaking with him. He believed that, even in such delicate situation, he could get information from the dragon without endangering himself. Any piece of information had the potential to be vital.

"Forgive my rudeness, great lord. I am called Raal Saar, nothing more than a traveler who has lost his way. How is this wonderful land named?"

To direct the conversation where he wanted, he first needed to figure out the dragon's personality. He both needed to keep the dragon talking to understand how he thought and also to make him answer at least one of his questions. If the dragon answered to anything, regardless of how trivial the question, it meant he acknowledged him as his interlocutor. And an interlocutor, unlike an interrogated, was less likely to be seen as food.

"A most peculiar traveler to not know the land you fly upon."

Even though the monster kept asking questions while refusing to answer, he wasn't at least ignoring what he said.

The dragon wanted answers? Fine. The longer the conversation went on, the better it was for him. For the time being he would see how the conversation proceeded while answering every question, at least as long as the information he gave wouldn't put him in more danger than he already was.

"I came from an island far away from here, great lord. I am not knowledgeable about these lands and I have yet to meet the ones that inhabit them."

A declaration of ignorance; someone that knows nothing about you it's hardly a threat. If the dragon felt it was safer to dispose of him, he would undoubtedly do so.

Something about him gave the impression of having great knowledge; there might have been a slight chance he wanted to display it. He wasn't hoping for a complete explanation, but maybe the dragon could be tempted to let something important slip just to observe his reaction.

"A distant island you say? Interesting indeed. And how is this island named?"

The dragon's clear voice carried dangerous words.

Had he answered the truth and stated a country of the real world, the dragon could have attacked him not recognizing the place. Had he answered with a made up name that wasn't able to convince the dragon, the result would have been the same. He knew only a few names of that world's countries, but claiming to be from wherever the Slane Theocracy was might trigger in the dragon any kind of reaction; the risks of doing so outweighed by far the benefits.

There was only one alternative left. He had to make a bet.

From the little which was revealed in the conversation, he had been able to grasp a few aspects of the dragon's character. It was far from what he would consider enough for attempting such a dangerous gamble, but the conversation was heading in a direction he couldn't afford.

He hoped to be right and made his bet.

"It's called Asgard, great lord. Have you heard of its glorious history?"

The bet was on the dragon not knowing the geography of all that world's countries, not be willing to admit it and not calling him a liar.

The dragon had repeatedly referred to the place they were in as his territory, so there were good chances he didn't knew much about areas which didn't affected him directly.

He had also already met people like him in his own world. People whose pride was so great they would never admit to be lacking in any field. There were far more of them than one would imagine, and the dragon gave the same feeling as them.

And at last, what he was saying was truth, from a certain point of view. He "was" from Asgard.

Lie detectors were, quite ironically, nothing more than machines that read the body's condition. Expert liars and confidant individuals could trick them as easily as they could trick other people. Even if the dragon had keen senses sharp to the point of being supernatural, he couldn't determine anything as long as there was nothing to read.

There were a total of three variables he couldn't control. If he were to be wrong on even one, the situation would go far beyond irreparable. The odds weren't in his favor.

The question in his mind now was… How much had he been able to understand of a mythical creature's personality that legends said to easily be centuries old?

"I see."

Up to that moment the dragon had answered his questions by asking more, but his answer was now different. It was vague, open to many interpretations. It lacked the attitude of the previous ones. For him, it was the proof his theories were somehow correct.

The creature flying in front of him was superb, proud and unwilling to admit any kind of inferiority. As long as he didn't exaggerated on those points, he could attempt to direct the conversation away from dangerous topics.

The balance had begun to slowly shift in his favor.

He waited for the dragon to make the next move. Normally that would have been the best moment to ask a question, when the dragon was most likely let something important slip out of his jaws, but he still knew too little about him; if things went poorly, being attacked would be a more than probable outcome.

In the end, after a rather long moment of silence, the dragon resumed with the interrogation.

"What species do you belong to, little one?"

"I am a member of the Oni race, great lord. Are there others of my kind in your domain?"

The questions he could ask were strictly tied to the topics the dragon brought up. If he were to ask question regarding unrelated arguments he would undoubtedly be ignored, assuming he was that lucky. This was the only way he could at least try to obtain some information.

"No, little one. There are not others like you here."

…He did it. He finally managed to make the dragon answer one of his questions, even an important one. He was the only oni there; as such, it was unlikely anyone knew about the species at all. It gave him little insight about who inhabited the land, but at least it gave him the possibility to speak about himself with a much boarder margin of error. There was a slight chance he was lying, but it was extremely unlikely for him to do so on such an easily verifiable matter.

"How long has it been since you have entered my territory, little one?"

"I have just arrived this night, great lord. I rested in the forest for a few hours and departed shortly after the sun rose."

He needed another chance to ask a question. The situation was finally improving. If he went on like that, he would shortly be able to get more information.

"I have not seen you enter, little one. How did you come in without me noticing? And why have you left your island?"

The only answer to that question was the truth. Or at least the parts that didn't involved virtual reality, video games, computers and anything created after the first industrial revolution.

"I have not chosen to enter your domain without you being aware of it, great lord. The reason of my presence here is unknown even to myself. Before even realizing what was happening, I have been dragged into your land. Has what happened to me already happened before?"

That was the most important question he could ask. If the dragon had any idea of the situation he was in or if he had to find the answer by himself.

After he made his question, silence fell between them.

The dragon's expression slowly changed, as did the distance between them.

He was getting closer.

Raal Saar had no idea of what emotion was now displayed on the deer-alligator-like face. It might have meant anything, but one thing was certain. The dragon knew something that he did not.

"It has."

In those two words, Raal Saar saw many of the unspoken signals he had learned to recognize. He knew way too well what the dragon meant; he was far easier to read than he had initially guessed, but now that gave him little comfort.

Within the magical darkness that surrounded him, he reached for the daggers below his cloak. His lack of information had caused him to say something the dragon was not supposed to hear; now he could only prepare himself to deal with the consequences of his choices.

"Once. About a century ago."

The dragon was now only twenty meters away from him, and the distance kept decreasing every time the immense wings moved.

"One last question for you, little one. The darkness that surrounds you… is it magic?"

The daggers were tight in his hands, the dragon only ten meters away.

More than four thousand meters below him, a large portion of the forest was being shaken by the powerful movements of the dragon's wings.

He looked thought his mask, directly in the pair of reddish glowing eyes. They seemed even brighter then before.

"…Yes."

It all happened within a second. The moment the dragon opened his jaws and an intense flare appeared down his throat, Raal interrupted the effect of [Shadow glide V]. With nothing left to sustaining him, the gravity immediately pulled him toward the forest at exponential speed; while the sky above him was being dyed in red flames.

The combined effects of gravity, the strong wind produced by the dragon's wings pushing air down and a swiftly reactivated [Shadow glide V] made him reach the forest below nearly instantly.

Once he was close enough to the ground, he activated the [Death shadow] class skill and became ethereal.

He swiftly changed direction with an angle that should have been impossible for anything traveling at that speed and flew parallel to the ground, like if his body was completely free from inertia. He then flew just a couple of meters below the trees' top, passing through obstacles in a straight line while being covered by the vegetation.

When the dragon's fire breath ended, he begun to look for the corpse. Nothing was standing in front of him, nothing was falling and nothing was burning. It didn't took him long to realize the enemy had evaded his attack and was now nowhere to be seen. He had to prevent his escape.

The dragon faced toward the sky and opened once more his jaws. The immense horns on his head and back begun to shine of a blinding light, producing countless small orbs of light around him. Then they meld in a large sphere in front of him.

Once it was completed the dragon breathed fire once more, pushing the now flaming sphere high above.

It took just a couple of seconds for the globe to explode. From it, a massive cascade of fire and light fell on the ground. It would have encircled a vast portion of the forest in a few moments. Both of them were about to be trapped by an immense magical flaming barrier.

Raal Saar was able to realize what was happening only when he saw the glowing wall falling in front of him, too far away from him to outrun it. He saw the wall incinerating everything within ten meters from it as it fell, leaving behind nothing but burning cinder and the ashes of anything too close to it. He could feel the immense heat it produced that far away even in his ethereal form. He already knew he couldn't pass through it.

He decided to fly back, moving through the trees while avoiding to proceed in a straight line. It was imperative not to be found by the dragon at all costs.

While constantly moving from one place to the other, he made the point of the situation. He was trapped in a barrier with a dragon that wanted him dead for reasons he didn't bothered to explain. There was a slight chance that he could defeat the dragon, but entering a fight in the current situation was a terrible idea.

Even though in the game he had defeated larger opponents during some boss battles, they were all bound to follow game patterns. Every time he had also been in a party, with the experience of multiple previous battles against them and his own life never being at stakes.

Since he was in his game body there was a chance that death wasn't a permanent condition, but the risk wasn't worth the try.

His best option was to risk being spotted while teleporting away.

He activated a teleportation skill and selected as the target the sculpture he saw in the forest. He saw the world around him briefly blur and in an instant refocus on a different sight, but it wasn't the one he had focused on. He reflexively jumped in the direction opposite to where the heat was coming from. The barrier had prevented him from teleporting away.

He could only deal with it in the same way he dealt with the previous one; finding a weak spot, make a breach and escape from there. The fairy queen's barrier took him over forty minutes to analyze, this one was likely to take even more. He stared at it to make the [Greater detect weak spot] ability start and mentally prepared himself for a long waiting.

He wasn't used to curse when things didn't went as planned, but that moment he couldn't help to mentally do so.

The barrier was shrinking.

After vowing to find a countermeasure against high-level barriers if he ever managed to make it out alive, he looked up toward the dragon.

He was searching the surroundings, still looking for him. He wouldn't stop until he found him, and the barrier kept reducing the places he could hide. Time was against him.

The next best option he thought of didn't even resemble a good idea. Kill the caster to break the spell.

He studied the dragon. His chances of victory were around 20%, optimistic estimation.

He had seen it sometimes in online gameplays, player winning boss battles alone. Run, hit, escape and repeat; that was the strategy. With his classes and skills he could be able to do the same; in Yggdrasil defeating a boss like that was likely impossible, but that dragon wasn't an yggdrasilian monster.

The double activation of the class skill [Shadow poison V] covered both daggers with a dark aura; he activated the speed and damage increasing skills, casted [Greater invisibility] together with [Greater silence] and took a deep breath. Then, while trying his best to keep his mind as clear as possible, he flew toward his enemy at extreme speed.

Even if it would take a great amount of time for the [Greater detect weak spot] class skill to work on a newly encountered enemy, there were a couple of easily recognizable weak spots that members of the same species shared. The most common among dragons were the middle of the throat, the back of the head, the left side of the chest, the lower part of the stomach and the ones he found the most effective of all; the eyes.

[Shadow poison] was a class skill that allowed a shadow assassin to produce a unique poison directly from the shadows a few times per day. It dealt damage over time and gained more effects according with the variant used. If the lowest version was used it would decrease the victim field of view, while the highest version would completely block all senses that relied on the infected area. Poison's efficiency heavily relied on the target's size, as well as other factors such as race and classes. Against a colossal dragon, poison's efficiency was incredibly low; but its additional effect would still influence the dragon if used properly.

He was approaching at an incredible speed. When he was about a dozen of meters away from the eyes, he interrupted the [Death shadow] skill to return material. In the following instants he covered the remaining distance, pierced the dragon right eye with both blades and flew away toward the top of the barrier, putting as much distance as possible between the two them.

The difference between the silence and the greater silence spells usually confused the new players. Silence prevents the target from producing any sound, while greater silence negate all the sounds in an area. This made silence a better choice for espionage since it allowed the things around the player to produce sound themselves, allowing him to spy on other's conversations and preventing something else to reveal his presence by not producing a sound it should. But greater silence had an advantage over its counterpart. At the cost of temporarily making the user deaf, it gave him immunity from sound based effects. Raal Saar was sure that if he hadn't chosen the greater version, the dragon's scream would have been the last thing he had ever heard.

The birds that were trying to fly away from the burning forest fell to the ground immediately after the furious monster shouted all his hatred; all crushed by the power of his screams.

The previously red glowing eye was now painfully closed, blackened by the dark blood spurting out of it. The eyelid was already black, infected by the shadow poison. The black stain was slowly taking over the entire area around the eye, stopping only after having spread over a third of the head.

The dragon's last eye was reflecting all the inner rage the legendary creature felt. He opened his jaws and begun to breath fire all around him, furiously trying to hit the target in his rage.

Raal Saar was able to easily dodge the deadly flames both thanks to the randomness of the target-less attacks and to the great distance there was between him and their source.

He allowed his sight to briefly shift over the weapons; thick viscous dragon blood turned black covered them. It was the first time he had ever stabbed anyone; to be precise, it was the first time he had ever hurt a living creature larger than an insect.

He looked at the pain he had caused, at the consequences of his actions, at the creature he had caused to forever loose an eye.

Gameplay, boss battle, skill, class, effect. Before the attack he was just thinking about it all in game terms, but seeing the consequences of what he had done made him realize just how real that world was.

He placed his hand in the dark hole that was the inventory and took out of it a scroll. When he let it fall, it opened and burned in a bluish fire; confirming that the contained spell had successfully been activated. Under the influence of [Sound immunity], he interrupted the [Greater silence] substituting it with [Silence]. Not being able to hear in battle had more downsides than merits.

The dragon was still screaming in rage, throwing flames all around him. The forest was now completely on fire and he could hear the cries of the animals struggling to escape the flames.

Smoke was rising all around them and accumulating within the barrier. Breathing it didn't seem to be problematic for him, but if all the oxygen were to burn he would have nothing left to breath. He made up his mind. The dragon was the one that attacked first and undoubtedly still desired to kill him; he would go through it until the end.

He activated once more [Shadow poison V] on both blades. He had a limit of fifteen daily uses; four had already been used on the white fairy queen after he used [Midnight call], other four were already used in the current battle. After the second assault, he would have just seven more uses before running out.

He approached the dragon from above while moving in circles and quickly changing direction. If he managed to strike at the second eye the dragon would be completely blind, after that his chances of winning would drastically increase.

However he had to close the distance to re enter melee range, it would become harder to dodge his attacks the closer he got.

He flew while remaining on the blinded side of the dragon's vision. Even though he was invisible, he had long learned to never place too much faith into it.

The beast was turning around while keeping to breath fire, interrupting the attacks only to inhale.

As he got closer, the heat became extreme. He waited for the current flaming breath to end. When the dragon stopped the attack to inhale, he flew above the head and then quickly stabbed the second eye.

He hadn't heard the dragon's first scream because of [Greater silence], and the following ones were reduced in intensity as the hatred and pain were slowly mitigating; but he heard that one. The spell he used protected his body from taking sound damage and even reduced all the sounds above a certain level; but regardless of it all, the shout was far beyond anything he had ever heard. So powerful he felt the ground shaking.

Both the dragon's eyes were now black and covered in dark blood. The blinded creature had now become completely possessed by rage. Nothing in him even resembled the majestic dragon he had conversed with; he was nothing more than a bloodthirsty beast.

This time Raal Saar hadn't distanced himself too much from his enemy. He activated two more uses of the [Shadow poison V] and flew to the back of the dragon's head, where his ears were.

He was getting used to combat; it felt more and more like in the game with every moment that passed. He pierced in rapid succession his two targets and flew away from the beast. The poison quickly infected the area and covered in black what was left of the dragon's head.

The dragon had lost all the senses in the head. No sight, no hearing, no smell, no taste and most important of all, no sense of balance.

The fire-breathing monster soon struggled to maintain his position. The wings became uncoordinated, the tail moved in directions that did little to keep the balance and the paws desperately shifted in midair.

The body slightly tilted toward left. The beast unwittingly moved in that direction, gaining speed and loosing height.

Then, he fell. The dragon plummeted for hundreds of meters, without even understanding what was happening. He continued to scream throughout the entire fall; maybe rage, maybe fear.

He deafeningly crashed into the burning ground. Derbies and broken trees flew away, propelled by the unbelievable power of the impact.

High in the sky, Raal Saar briefly contemplated how much damage such a massive creature had taken from thousands meters of fall.

The beast was on one side. One horn was damaged, the other completely severed. Many of the smaller ones on the back were completely shattered, though they all seemed shorter than what he remembered them to be. The paws were bent to an angle that was impossible for both mammals and reptiles; most of the bones were likely broken if not shattered. The large wings were pierced in several places, with the broken points of the trees visible in each of the rips.

The fire wasn't burning him, the blood pool forming in the crater served at the very least that purpose.

He looked at the flaming light barrier around him. It was still active, but it produced way less heat than before and it had stopped shrinking. The dying flame of a dying dragon.

Raal Saar interrupted all the activated abilities except for [Shadow glide V] to not waste any more skill use than necessary. He would need them to react to other unforeseen events if something were to happen before Govan Lune got there.

While he was staring at the weakened barrier, looking for a breach to escape from, the fallen dragon was exhaling his last breaths. Most of his senses were useless, but the sense of touch was still working, mostly. He could feel the ground below him, the warm liquid slowly covering his body, the sharp pain that engulfed him, the cold crawling up his limbs.

He had fallen, he was injured to the point of not being able to move and he would soon drown in his own blood.

He had always considered magic to be his most valuable resource, but before that moment his mind had always failed to conceive the possibility of his own end.

He refused to die.

The damaged horns begun to glow, and so did the many broken pieces that had been shattered around. Thousands of small light orbs were rising from the ground, and once the area was filled with them, they completely covered the dragon.

Raal Saar realized something was amiss only when the barrier regained its original intensity and begun to shrink once more. It took him just a second to realize what was happening.

When he turned to face the dragon, he only saw an immense wall of reddish flames going toward him. He tried to fly away, outrunning the flames and hiding in a safe location, but it was already too late. The flames completely enveloped him before he could gain enough speed.

In the beginning he felt nothing. No heat, no pain. Nothing.

Then, the nervous system flood his brain with signals all at once. The pain was way beyond anything he had ever experienced. The heat was oppressing; when he inhaled he felt his lungs burning, leaving an aftertaste of his melting flesh. If previously [Greater silence] prevented him to hear the dragon's scream of pain, this time it was [Silence] that took away from the monster the declaration of agony he was so eager to savor.

He soundlessly fell on the ground, rolling over the uneven surface and hitting rocks and burned trees until a hole was merciful enough to stop his fall.

There was not a single point of his body that wasn't in pure, absolute, intense, overwhelming pain. He had read about fourth-degree burns; a slightly lucid corner of his mind was raising the hypothesis of having his entire body covered in them.

It was the first time he felt true pain. Before coming to that world, everything he had been through was bearable. But the pain he just experienced, the fire that was melting away his flesh, was so far beyond anything he had ever felt that he could hardly grasp the extent of the damage.

His gaming self would have merely checked the remaining HP. Comparing his stats with what he assumed the dragon to have and taking into account both his racial weakness to fire and the damage suffered in the fall, he would have estimated to be between 20% and 15%. But even though his rational and calculator mindsets were still present, there was something else which now dominated his consciousness.

The will to kill.

The desire to end a life; desire born after experiencing the worst pain imaginable and surviving. The fundamental purpose behind the very act of killing that no game could ever truly pass to the player; the actual desire to see the victim die.

The pain was finally freeing him from the hesitation he had previously only tried to ignore. He now had no compassion whatsoever toward the beast; no doubt about the reasons behind the dragon motives. The fire, together with his flesh, had completely burned away from him any trace of empathy.

He rose on his feet. His items rubbing on the burned skin at his every movement kept him drowning in a constant sea of pain.

The dragon was looking for his corpse in the place he fell. He hadn't been able to see where he ended up after being hit.

He hadn't even a scratch on him. Both the eyes and the ears were as good as when they first met. Even the scars on his wings had disappeared. Though he remembered the horns to be larger.

Below the mask, Raal Saar endured the pain caused by what was left of his lips curving into a smile. Whatever the dragon did to completely heal himself, he had to pay a price for it.

Raal Saar was an assassin, not a magic caster. He had however managed to obtain a rare race, the [Black oni]. There were six oni variants; each one possessed a unique racial ability. The one of the black's variant was [Illusory eye], which allowed a limited use of magic. The limit of known spells was the player's level, though it could be increased with a certain cash shop item. It also greatly limited the variety of learnable spells, allowing only spells from the [Illusion] list. But regardless of the limitations, being able to use magic in a fight brought incredible advantages; especially considering it was even possible to apply meta-magical class bonuses to those spells.

"[Resilient illusion: Delusional iron maiden]"

The dragon was slowly walking while facing the ground, still searching for the burned corpse; assuming there was something left for him to find. Then everything went dark.

It all happened so fast that it took him a long moment to realize what was going on. His vision was completely obstructed, his entire body unable to move in the slightest. He felt long metal spikes piercing his flesh all over his body. Every movement he made caused the spikes to pierce deeper in him, making blood pour out.

He was trapped.

Rage spread through him once more, the assassin lived. He resolved himself to find a way out through sheer force. He ignored the spikes piercing his body and slammed his back against the walls with all his might, producing however no result. As he kept slamming against it over and over, the wounds kept multiplying at every attempt. The blood was pouring out uncontrollably, but he kept struggling through the pain. He had to break free as soon as he could.

Raal Saar looked at the beast trying to escape his illusion. The "resilient" meta-magic skill made it twice as hard to disbelieve an illusion, and until he could do so, he was trapped in it.

The spell he selected made the target believe to be in an indestructible iron maiden, restricting all his movements and obstructing most senses.

As an additional effect, every action taken by the target would cause a loss of HP, though the illusion couldn't actually inflict damage. The target only believed to be loosing health; it was the same as [False data: Life], but the one being deceived was the one reading his health.

There also was an automatic "fear" status for everyone trapped in the illusion that would increase over time until reaching "insanity", but the dragon seemed to have immunity from fear.

In a few words, the dragon was out of the fight until he either disbelieved the illusion or Raal Saar became unable to maintain it.

It wasn't an illusion he liked to use. Even though blocking all movements from a single target while making him believe to be suffering damage and preventing him from gathering information was an undoubtedly powerful CC, it was effective only if very few people knew about it. It consumed way too much mana for every second it was active, and it would break automatically at the first hit or effect suffered by the target. An ally could just use a weak attack to free someone trapped in it.

He had only a single hit on the dragon. But he had already planned how to regain the advantage in a single move.

When the fight had begun and the barrier started to burn the forest down, something that didn't existed in the game appeared. The smoke.

Apparently the barrier didn't allow it to leave the area, and since the dragon had lit the entire forest on fire there now was an incredible amount of smoke; smoke trapped at the top of the barrier.

Throughout the fight it kept accumulating and it had slowly formed a dome above them, a huge dark dome that blocked out the sun's rays and reduced the light of the flames. The visibility inside the barrier had steadily kept dropping since the beginning of the fight, and now it was dark enough for him to bring the fight where it was him that held the advantage.

With his mana reserves quickly being depleted by his illusion, he activated his skill.

"[Dark world portal]"

Inside the huge shadow they were in, a black stain dropped into existence. It grew larger and larger, until it became only a great hole from which no light could escape. The portal through the dark world had opened below them, and everything in the area was dragged in it: him, the dragon, the broken trees and everything else that had the misfortune to be trapped in the barrier.

Once they reached the other world, the dragon had already been freed from the illusion. The two of them were now in front of each other, surrounded by the absolute darkness of the distorted space.

Raal Saar looked at the area around him. The dragon's barrier was able to penetrate even through the dark world. It was so similar to the last skill of the white fairy queen he felt rather annoyed.

He dismissed the though and focused on the situation at hand. Even though he wanted nothing more than to kill the dragon, he was perfectly aware that he had just managed to obtain the advantage by a slight margin. Given his situation, a single misstep was all that separated survival from death.

[Darkvision] and [True Seeing] wouldn't work in there. One would need highly advanced senses which specializes against magical darkness in order to see normally in the dark world, such as [Blindsight] or [Shadow eyes]. Every form of light would quickly be absorbed, however that dimension couldn't negate the source itself.

The fight had shifted in the battlefield most advantageous for him. He was finally able to fight at his fullest potential.

Raal Saar rose in the air and activated the damage increasing skills. He flew straight toward the dragon, pierced the shadow-poisoned spiral blade in his neck and flew away as fast as he arrived.

The dragon shouted in anger and breathed fire once more; blindly attacking an opponent he could not see which was hiding in a world he could not sense. Despite the dragon being far from dead, Saar couldn't help but feel a sliver of satisfaction from his agony.

While the poison was still spreading, the monster felt a second cut in his neck. Then a third attack to his chest, followed by a fourth one his right eye. He responded to each of them by shouting and breathing fire, but it was all fruitless. All the dragon could sense was the pain from the unknown poison spreading in his body, the empty darkness he was in and the growing anger within him.

After shouting and randomly attacking pushed by anger and hatred, the dragon came to the realization that, for the first time in his lifetime, he was bound to lose. The way he had always crushed his enemies was no longer an effective option.

He had to change his approach.

He interrupted his attacks. He tried his best to quiet the violent storm of emotions within him and begun to analyze the situation with a calmer mind.

Then, for the first time since the beginning of the fight, he spoke.

"You crawl well, assassin. How about showing me how you fight?!"

There was a moment of silence. The dragon's voice, even though he was trying not to show it, betrayed the pain caused by the poison flowing in his veins. He had been stabbed multiple times, always with poisoned blades.

Before, he held both the field and the time advantages. But now, he was surrounded by darkness, unable to cause any harm to his opponent and the combined action of poison and attacks might have killed him before the barrier could do so to his opponent; and they both knew it. What he needed now was to find a way to hit his opponent, even once, and terminating the fight.

The answer came quickly. A fast piercing blow flying in one of his posterior paws, right on the joint.

The dragon must have had an unbelievably low opinion of others. Raal knew to have the advantage, and he wasn't willing to give it up for something as stupid as honor.

Assuming that since the moment the dragon healed himself he had also completely gotten rid of all the shadow poison, he currently had been injected five times; three of which in areas that would spread the infection quickly through his body. Poison worked badly against his opponent, but that didn't mean it was useless. Enough doses of poison would affect anyone that hadn't some form of immunity, and the shadow poison wasn't to be underestimated.

However, there still was a large problem with his current situation. The dragon was able to completely heal back to full health in a problematically brief amount of time. Assuming his hypothesis was right, to heal he needed to pay something represented by the horns; which meant there was a limited number of usages.

There was a possibility for him to defeat the dragon, but the timing to do so had to be perfect and he needed to wait for the precise moment to act. Until then, all he could do was avoid being spotted and keep damaging his opponent.

He opened the inventory and took out of it a vial with written "3. 23x2 D/m", which contained a greenish viscous liquid. As he kept moving in midair, he opened the vial and poured its content on his blade.

His every movement kept causing him incredible pain due to his burns, but he was somehow keeping it under control. He couldn't afford to slow down or be distracted when his life was on the line.

He had a racial high regeneration ability which allowed him to quickly regain large amounts of HPs. Considering the emphasis his character build had on speed and stealth, he usually could just remain hidden until it was safe to attack again; but this time around most of the damage he had suffered was from the fire breath, so his regeneration was out of the equation.

He would have to bear the pain for the entire fight, but he would make sure his opponent would do the same.

He flew toward the dragon and stabbed him in the stomach. The dragon raised a paw to prevent him from escaping, but he was able to easily dodge it. Thanks to the passive skill [Shadow meld V], he had complete cover in darkness from whomever he wished. Since it bent shadows around him to make a protective aura, it bypassed all kind of senses; even magical ones.

Most of his strongest skills and tactics relied on the darkness in the area, which made him extremely powerful if he fought in the dark world. Even back in the game, he was considered a fearsome opponent in the dark.

While struggling to hide the pain caused by the new poison and the damaged limb, the dragon attempted once more to pinpoint his location by making him speak.

"You had many questions before, assassin. Why don't you ask something now? My knowledge is vast…"

A moment of silence followed the dragon's words. Saar weighted the proposal, he desired answers almost as much as he wanted to kill him; but he was no fool.

Even though that was his first actual fight, in the game he had become experienced in combat and PvP. His opponents had tried to make him talk more times than he could remember, and each time they tried he found that the most effective tactic was to give them what they asked for.

"Why have you attacked me?"

The dragon immediately looked toward the source of Saar's voice. It came from an area where he could smell cinder and hear the crackling sound of his fire, as well as panicked animals cowering in fear in the darkness.

He threw an extremely wide wall of fire in that direction, enveloping in flames over a third of the area inside the barrier. It was an attack way more powerful than the others up to that moment; behind it there were all his anger and determination.

But even before the flames could quiet down, something sharp and painful penetrated his shoulder and something else lacerated his left wing. The pain was terrible.

Saar placed back in the inventory the vials he was holding and took out some more.

[Ghost sound] was one of the most basic spells one could learn, literally the lowest leveled illusion. It could do little more than distracting an unprepared opponent by reproducing a prerecorded sound in a specific area, but in PvP the advantage of that brief distraction was invaluable. It was surprising how often people would just attack in the direction he activated the spell in and open themselves to counterattacks.

However he felt a little surprised the dragon actually fell for his trick. In tournaments and in some of the most entertaining fights he had ever took part in, his opponents would be extremely wary of such a big misstep.

Either the dragon wasn't used to battles, or he was so desperate to find him that he couldn't reason clearly anymore.

Once the new poisons were on the daggers, he flew behind the dragon. He then used [Ghost sound] once more.

Selecting which sound to use had become an entirely mental process; as such he just needed to think the next message. He then selected an area on the other side of the dragon to be its source.

"Were you so afraid that you wanted to end this in a sneak attack? Wasn't I the one supposed to crawl?"

Successfully taunting an opponent was rather hard. All the people he usually fought against, including himself, would either ignore the adversary or wouldn't care at all. Unless you knew a lot about someone, lowering his skills through speech alone was very rare.

The dragon however wasn't used to contain his anger and ignore offenses; therefore he was extremely bad at it.

"I am the Wilderness dragon lord. Supreme ruler of these lands. Show yourself coward, and fight me with honor."

The curved blade cut through the leather of his other wing, rendering it completely unusable.

While the dragon was roaring in anger and pain, Raal Saar took the final step to make him completely lose any resemblance of self-control.

"These are not your lands, this is the dark world. Wherever darkness rules, so do I. Here you are no king. This is my reign. Now prostrate yourself and beg for mercy!"

The dragon's face distorted itself in a feral expression. He was so utterly enraged that he had become completely unrecognizable. He had fell so deeply into fury that he had became just a bloodthirsty beast.

He charged in front of him, keeping his head low so that the horns would trample over anything in his way. He breathed fire to the top of his lungs, lighting on fire everything inside the barrier. His lucidity was completely gone.

"I will kill you! I will torture you for the rest of eternity and make you regret having ever been born!"

Flames were now engulfing everything within the barrier, the sound of fire quickly taking over the cries of the few surviving animals; but there wasn't any non-magical light that could ever pierce the absolute darkness that that world was.

Saar kept on attacking him with poisoned blades whenever he had the occasion to do so, and considering he had completely forsaken defense, there were many.

However, regardless of how much poison he was using, the raging beast kept moving.

Poisons dealt damage over time. Using the same poison multiple times would extend the period of time it would deal damage, while using multiple different poisons would deal more damage from many sources all at once for a shorter period.

He kept changing poisons and keeping in mind which ones had still effect. He was privileging the ones that dealt many damages over a short period, taking a lot of HP as quickly as possible through repeated attacks. But regardless of how much damage he was dealing, it seemed that the dragon was able to keep up with all of it.

Earlier he had only been able to severely damage him by making him fall for thousands of meters. Just how resistant was he?

Any player or NPC with that many poisons in him and no way to fight them off would have died within minutes, but regardless of how much time was passing the dragon was still mostly unaffected. He had so much HP that he could only compare him to the game's bosses. If the dragon had that level of HP defenses and resistance, he could only defeat him if he was able to execute his strategy flawlessly.

Even though the dragon kept raging on, the barrier was still shrinking. Flying around in a smaller and smaller space, with fire all around him and his body in extreme pain was getting increasingly harder. He could not get distracted. He couldn't afford it.

In the dark world people would usually loose the sense of time. In the game he often checked the clock, but there the only way he had to keep track of time was to count his heartbeats. Thanks to his new body, they were surprisingly regular.

Finally, after a prolonged battle and when the space available was running out, what he had been waiting for the entire fight happened. The [Greater detect weak spot] passive class skill activated on the dragon lord. He finally saw the large stains appear on the creature's body. Now the strategy could finally advance to the next phase.

He completely stopped all his attacks.

A couple of minutes later, the barrier was even smaller and the dragon was still furiously striking down everything around him. It took him a lot of time to finally realize he hadn't been attacked in the last few minutes.

The dragon interrupted his furious rampage, his mind still trying to process what had happened. He was bleeding and greatly damaged, in a world in which he could not see.

Around him there was absolute silence, broken only by the surrounding flames burning what was left of the trees and animals that had been dragged there with him.

He smelled the air, trying to find any hint about the death of the one that enraged him to the point of becoming a mere beast. He could smell burned corpses and blood, but there was no way to tell which one belonged to him. He hadn't been able to sense him even once since the battle shifted in that world, and now the only presence he could feel was his own.

Like before, the oni was nowhere to be found.

However, the attacks had ended.

Had he killed him?

Like before, Raal Saar was betting on how much he understood the dragon's character. This time, he won if the dragon believed to have killed him in his rampage. He would have preferred to back his strategy up with an illusory copy of himself being found and killed, but the [Resilient illusion: Delusional iron maiden] had drained so much mana that anything he could produce would never pass for real for more than a couple of seconds.

This time there was however one difference from his previous bet, this time he had a much clearer picture of the opponent's character. The dragon lord would have likely attempted to somehow understand wherever he was alive or not, but after a couple of attempts he would have just left that world. Assuming he had a way to do so.

The dragon made a couple of steps in the dark, searching for traces. As the rage was slowly leaving his body, he felt his head spinning and a sense of fatigue spreading through him.

He smelled the surrounding area. On one hand, it was unlikely to kill such an annoying opponent while aimlessly raging around. But when he saw no other option that was exactly what he had tried to do.

If he could find the corpse he would have the proof to his demise, but for all he knew it might have fallen in the flames and got turned to ashes; or have been obliterated by the barrier. He didn't even know if onis were a species that left a corpse upon dying to begin with.

When they got dragged in that world, everything that was in the area had also followed them. Right now he couldn't even tell apart trees' ashes from animals' ashes.

Raal Saar gripped his daggers tightly. In the end, it was all about how overconfident the dragon was. Would he assume he had just killed him without any strategy or would he attempt some tactics to find him?

Personally, he might search in the dark world for centuries for all he cared, but Saar still had to deal with the barrier.

The dragon lord of Wilderness kept moving around the area, testing the ground with his paws and tensing up whenever a burning log fell on the ground. He painstakingly smelled the air, determined to not let any detail slip.

Then, after the most accurate search he had ever saw, his horns glowed. Hundreds orbs of light formed from his jaws and floated in front of him.

They positioned themselves to form a straight line, taller than the dragon himself. Then it begun to spin, quickly gaining speed at every rotation, until only a wide disk of light was visible in front of the dragon.

From the center of the disk, a small hole appeared; and through it, the world they came from was once more visible.

The hole became larger and larger, until it grew enough to match the size of the disk. The dragon had created a portal to escape from the dark world, but the process was both extremely slow and caused the dragon's horns to get shorter.

The dragon shifted his head to the side, attempting one last time to discern if Saar had actually died.

He slowly looked back at the portal, and then he left the dark world.

Raal Saar chose not to return through the dragon's portal. Even though the dragon had mainly fought using his fire breath and physical attacks, he had also clearly shown to posses powerful magical abilities, abilities which were used three times over the battle; the barrier, the full recovery and the dimensional portal.

This was the first time he had actually saw him casting the spell, but it wasn't like anything he had ever heard of in the game.

There were good chances the portal would affect him differently rather than the dragon. Considering how long it remained open after his passage, it was very likely to be an attempt to verify if he had died or not. Most portal-based teleportation spells from the game notified the caster of how many people had crossed them.

Saar's opponent was a dragon, a member of the strongest species in the game. He seemed ancient, likely many centuries old. It was impossible for anyone to have survived that long without some amount of talent and skill, and it was also impossible for someone that ancient to not be experienced.

He might have been short tempered, impatient, aggressive, violent, proud, overconfident and short sighted, but nothing of what he had done so far could be called stupid.

He would move cautiously until the very end.

Saar opened his own [Dark world portal], using the darkness created by the smoke in the other world to open the passage.

Once he left, nothing was moving anymore. The fire kept burning everything to ashes, and then died down. The dark world finally returned to his original state: dead, silent and void.

After passing through it and having emerged from a shadow, he checked the current situation.

The dragon was less than a hundred meters from him, facing his own portal and carefully inspecting it with his last eye. He was ready to attack anyone that might cross it the very moment something would begin to pass through.

He remained there for about a minute. A minute Saar felt like an hour, with the barrier shrinking every second and his body still screaming in pain. He suppressed his impatience and waited along with the dragon, the moment to strike had yet to come.

The dragon was greatly wounded; half blinded, bleeding from all over his body and the lack of breathable air seemed to have begun to give him some problem.

The portal begun to close, following the steps that led to his formation in the opposite order. The passage shrunk upon disappearing, the disk of light slowed down and the orbs scattered all around the area. Saar quickly moved to evade them.

The dragon kept himself ready to attack throughout the entire duration of the process. It was only a few moments after the portal was completely dispelled that he finally seemed to relax.

The dragon then looked at the barrier. It had kept shrinking for the entire battle, and now there was barely enough space for him to fully open his wings.

The barrier halted. The flames extinguished themselves, revealing an impenetrable wall of light that encircled everything. It was so bright that it was almost painful to watch. And then, the light dissolved.

The barrier had finally disappeared, letting the smoke and the heat leave the area. Fresher air filled with oxygen immediately blew in, while the impossibly high temperature nearly immediately returned to livable levels.

Saar instinctively took in a breath of fresh air and looked around. Everywhere around them there was nothing but destruction. Inside the barrier there was what little was left of the burned forest: a few roots protected by the ground, rocks and cinder; but where the barrier had passed there was nothing at all.

Beyond the small circle they were in, there was only black burned land for as far as the eye could see. There were no trees, no rocks, and no lakes. There was absolutely nothing that suggested a forest having ever existed there. Only pitch black land, with small hills and depressions constituting everything that could be seen.

He was free.

He was finally free.

He could fly away concealed by invisibility, he could teleport away, he could even return in the dark world and go on the opposite side of the world if he wanted; but he waited right where he was.

His eyes were fixed on a small spot on the left of the dragon's neck, glowing of a light stronger than all the others revealed by his skill; the weakest spot. The excruciating pain had kept reminding him for the entire fight of what he had to do before leaving.

The dragon inhaled the fresh air. The muscles on his face relaxed, leaving behind an expression that was perhaps satisfaction. He then exhaled a sigh of relief, his lips curving in a smile.

The horns glowed, reducing their size once more. The light orbs flowed out of his jaws, spiraling in the area around him. They begun to move, floating in circles around the dragon. As the orbs begun to shine brighter, many of them flew toward him; covering the area they touched with a glowing aura.

Now.

That was the moment.

"[Delayed perception field]"

After spending what little was left of his mana on a last illusion, he tightened the grip over his curved blade and used its daily special ability.

Everything stopped. The world went silent. The orbs of light, the wind, the fire as well as the dragon and everything else froze in place. It was like being trapped inside photography.

Mentally counting the seconds, he flew toward the immobile dragon.

The [Will of Kronos], a divine item that three times per day allowed to stop time in the same way as the [Time stop] spell. It also had other effects, like speed and agility boosts and being a countermeasure for an opponent's [Time stop]; but the ability to stop time was one of every player's best aces, especially since it wasn't expected from a non magic-caster character.

Since the [Delayed perception field] had been cast before the moment in which the time was stopped, once the time resumed it would still be active. This meant he had five seconds to use the [True assassin] most powerful passive skill, [death attack].

Striking someone in a weak spot would normally just grant large damage bonuses, but for a [True assassin] it was even more advantageous. After having dealt the attack, there was a slight chance for the target to suffer an instant death effect. This was slightly different from normal necromancy spells, as it could work even on lifeless enemies like golems.

An algorithm would calculate the success of a death attack based on many factors, like the current HP of the target, the level difference, buffs and de-buffs, how much damage was dealt in the last attack, how many members of that race the assassin had killed before, which weak-spot had been used and many others.

Saar had experimented countless hours with the skill to decipher the algorithm, and was now able to trigger the instant death effect by putting all the variables in his favor before the attack.

In this battle he had to wait for a long time before using it since he did not knew where exactly the weak spots were. And even though he had killed many other dragons before, the skill only checked the highest racial levels of the target; which meant he had to fight against the precise species to increase his chances. He was surely also higher leveled than him.

But even though he couldn't count on those variables, he had managed to put all the others in his favor. He was attacking while concealed. Several different poisons had infected the target, each carrying powerful long lasting de-buffs. The dragon was under an illusion and had suffered much damage over the fight. The death attack was also being carried out in the weak spot that would result in the highest amount of damage possible.

And most important of all, striking a mage in the middle of a spell not only greatly increased the odds of triggering the instant death effect, but also neutralized the spell itself.

The greatest weakness of magic was that people could cast only one spell at once. Most players bypassed the problem using appropriate meta-magic abilities, which by consuming more mana improved the spell, or by getting levels which granted class restricted racial spells, or by first casting spells which could be maintained over time and then the others; but casting the wrong spell in the wrong moment would cause the defeat of a player in any competitive match.

If he attacked the dragon while he was casting a spell, by the time he could interrupt the spell and switch to a better one he would have already been dead.

He was now in front of the dragon, mentally counting how many seconds he had left.

During the last day of the server he had already used the time stopping special ability two times, which meant he had only a single attempt. He could not afford mistakes in the execution.

A stab of pain cleared his mind from all the thoughts.

He inhaled, keeping the air inside for five seconds before releasing it.

He looked around.

The empty wasteland they were in lacked any form of possible threat for the following step.

He looked back at the dragon.

He focused completely on him.

In that moment, nothing else existed.

Twenty-two seconds left.

He placed his spiral blade's point a few centimeters away from the middle of the dragon's weak spot. It was a small area placed between two scales, on a closer look they weren't perfectly aligned. And they were exactly where the carotid would have been in a mammal.

Fourteen seconds.

He looked at the poison on his blade, carefully selected when the dragon was raging in the dark world. It would deal an extremely high amount of damage in an extremely short period, greatly damaging every non-magical material it came in contact with. It was basically an acid rather than a poison.

Six seconds.

He readied himself to strike the weak spot with all his might. All that was left was to wait and be ready.

Three seconds.

Two seconds.

One.

Time returned normal. The altered dragon's perception didn't allowed to properly process what was happening. He pushed the blade in the spot highlighted by the skill. The scale moved to the side with no resistance. The blade penetrated his neck with extreme ease.

The dragon remained unmoving. A long moment permeated by absolute silence enveloped the two, with the light orbs aimlessly scattering around. Only the cracking fire and the faint sound of the wind stood as proofs that the time had resumed.

Then, he fell. It wasn't anything spectacular. It wasn't supposed to be. He just fell.

Saar looked at what was left of the first being he had ever killed. The lifeless body on the ground was the source of a small waterfall of blood. He wasn't moving, he wasn't breathing; what moments ago was an existence capable of thought and self-awareness was now but an object at his feet, fundamentally no different from a water balloon with a hole in it.

The light orbs flying in random directions aimlessly collided with anything in the area. He made sure to not touch any of them; he wanted no more surprises from the dragon or his magic.

He looked more carefully at the carcass in front of him. His skill couldn't detect any weak spot or vital sign; he was nothing more than a puppet whose strings had been cut.

After such a long and furious fight, the quietness of the empty area around him felt almost unreal.

He could hear the wind. No more endless screams of anger, no flames bringing uncontrolled destruction all around him, no more animal cowering in fear. Just the wind.

The battle was over.

He had won.

Saar returned with his feet on the ground and slowly walked toward the body.

There was one last thing to do before leaving.

He kept observing, analyzing, looking for something. Something he had the right to take.

After a short while, a semi-transparent sphere gradually begun to form above the dragon corpse. It was completely different from the light orbs that had been used to cast the spells.

It was over half a meter in diameter. Instead of emanating light, it was surrounded by some sort of intense steam. It was like if a small sun was forming in front of him.

That was the dragon lord's soul.

In Yggdrasil there were a few rare classes that granted the [Soul Dealer] skill. If someone with said ability was nearby a recently departed creature, he could claim the soul as his own.

How the players decided to use the acquired souls largely depended according to the class which had granted them the skill; but from the moment the soul was claimed, all resurrection spells and abilities used on the target would automatically fail.

A stab of pain interrupted his flow of thoughts. Now that his life wasn't anymore on the line, the pain was becoming less and less bearable by the second.

He proceeded toward the sphere. Since when it had begun to form, it still hadn't stopped increasing in size. The souls of the [Forest's banes] couldn't even compare to it, and it had already grew larger than the [White fairy queen]'s. It was simply massive, way larger than the ones of other level 100 players. It grew over one meter before finally stabilizing. It was the largest soul he had ever seen, comparable only to some dungeon bosses.

He raised both hands toward it, struggling to ignore the pain caused by the motion.

He would devour the soul. A black oni eating a soul would replenish both HP and mana up to a quarter of the maximum value the target had for those stats, as well as receiving other extremely useful short-term benefits.

Once he did it, he would regain the mana he lost in the battle and use it to leave the area before someone else could arrive; and he would hopefully remove the fourth degree burns, ending the pain and letting his racial regeneration bring him back to full health.

He looked once more at the soul. What he was about to do was considered blasphemy and taboo in basically every religion which had ever existed.

He swallowed.

He slowly raised his hand.

He touched the soul with his palm.

The soul shrunk.

Every time he had devoured a soul in the game, the benefits had all immediately activated all at once. This time however, something didn't go as usual. He had yet to claim the soul.

When in a situation that could potentially cause harm, functional sentient being's bodies all react in the same way: fear.

Sacrificing control and precision, fear allows taking much quicker actions that could save their own lives. In the same way as a prey immediately flee at the sight of a predator and a person withdraw his hand at the sight of a blade falling on it; Saar swiftly jumped away at the sight of the soul shrinking. Doing so, he managed to dodge the thousands of light orbs that exploded out of it.

He landed on the burned empty area several dozens of meters away from the soul, but it required him three other jumps to fully escape the storm of light orbs that was devouring the area.

In front of him, the light storm was so dense that it had become a massive ever-expanding globe engulfing everything in its way.

Once the light storm disappeared, less than ten seconds had passed. Where moments ago there was the soul, now stood the greatest of his fears. The wilderness dragon lord, unscratched and smiling, looking exactly in his direction with white glowing eyes.

Run.

Every cell of his body was screaming the same message.

He turned away and flew as fast as he could. He had to go beyond the burned territory to escape the reach of a new potential barrier.

He had nothing left. There were no more ways to fight his opponent and he was in a terribly disadvantageous position.

All he could do now was escaping.

He still had his rings concealing him. He just needed to leave the area, hide in the forest and wait for a bit of mana to return. Then he could just escape everywhere he wanted through the dark world. If he could just reach the forest before the next barrier was used he would be safe.

As he turned back and begun to fly away, an incredible pain enveloped his back. The world around him quickly begun to spin, and before he could realize what was going on he had fallen to the ground.

The pain he felt wasn't from his burns. Something had hit him.

He struggled to return back on his feet.

Instinctively, he looked at the dragon; his eyes were glowing, and they weren't just looking in his direction; they were looking right at him. He was now able to bypass his invisibility.

His horns shone once more and the light orbs formed a small sphere in front of him. It was small, extremely small. It was slightly smaller than a human fist.

Then, in a fraction of a second, the dragon threw it at him.

It was an unbelievably fast attack, which moved much faster than him. However, it was traveling in a straight line, and the sphere had a rather small size. As long as he saw the attack coming, he could evade it.

He moved to the side, placing himself outside the attack trajectory. The attack, however, moved as well.

Saar understood what was happening and immediately rose a couple o meters in the air, flying toward the forest as fast as he could. When he looked behind him, the glowing sphere was still following. Deep within him, he knew it would not stop.

He begun to fly as close as possible to the ground, so close that he could touch it with his arms, but the sphere didn't collide either.

As it was getting closer and closer, he kept thinking of ways to elude a homing attack. If nothing of what he could do would save him, he would everything he could to minimize the damages.

He finally decided to fly in a straight line, doing everything in his power to travel as fast as possible. The difference in speed between them had to be minimal.

The sphere was getting closer and closer. The moment before the attack could hit him, he turned to face it while flying backward and crossed his daggers in front of him to parry the blow as best as he could.

The collision was way stronger than expected. Regardless of how much he tried to absorb the damage, he was blown away and fell once more to the ground.

As he was rising, he saw the dragon lord create another sphere in front of him.

The attacks were weak, so weak that even someone with defenses as low as his would require multiple shots to be defeated, even if greatly damaged. However the dragon had made the tactical choice to give up on power and exclusively select attacks that could deal even a tiny amount of sure damages.

Had he kept performing the usual attacks, Saar could have dodged everything from that distance. But the dragon had realized that a few sure damages many times were a better alternative than a great amount never.

He hadn't enough HP to survive the attack. He had no way to avoid it. The huge empty area he was in offered nothing to hide behind or to use as cover. He had used all his mana and his best skills, what now remained wasn't enough to accomplish anything meaningful.

The dragon lord had found a way to see him and had begun to make attacks that he couldn't avoid. Skills stealth and evasion, the only things that kept him alive during fights, were now impossible to use.

In the extremely short time he had left, Saar thought about every possible outcome to every possible action that he could take. Now that he was watching death in the eyes, his brain was processing faster than ever before.

In the cruelly short amount of time between the moment when the dragon lord created the sphere and when it left his jaws, he had thought and evaluated every strategy, tactic, alternative and trick he knew. Every single one of them, despite minor variations, produced the same outcome: death.

In his final moments, he felt almost like if the world was slowing down. All the events of the last hours came back to his mind. The last thing he ate before logging in, the cat sitting on his chair, the book open on his desk less than twenty pages to the end, the hours spent collecting data crystals on the last day for the guild leader's project. It seemed like everything he could think of in his last moment was trivial.

Then, midnight.

The new world. The stars. Magic. The flights. The dragon.

He saw the entire battle unfolding in front of him once more. He had indeed made many mistakes.

Why even in his final moments was he analyzing data? Old habits truly die hard.

The sphere was now halfway through its path. How much time had it been? Five seconds? Less?

It didn't mattered. Not anymore.

He closed his eyes.

He could hear the noise of the incoming attack, the sound of the wind and… something he couldn't properly describe behind him.

He was unsure of the reason why he bothered to open his eyes at his very end. Maybe because, subconsciously, he was unwilling to give up on life until he exhaled his last breath; or maybe he was just curious. But regardless of the reason, the first thing he saw once his eyes opened was a girl jumping in front of him.

She was just out of her teens, with long brown hairs gathered in twin-tails by two black ribbons. She was wearing a gold and red battle-mage's armor and was wielding a familiar looking elaborated black staff that ended in a spiral shape. He immediately recognized the symbol of his guild on her armor.

She quickly raised her staff and chanted.

"[Quickened spell: Greater arcane wall]"

In a flash of light a greenish barrier appeared around them, barely in time to block the glowing sphere smashing against it. From the point of the collision, a web of cracks quickly spread over most of the barrier. It gave him the impression of being inside a bubble of glass, just one touch away from falling to pieces. But regardless of the barrier's damages, the sphere disappeared without causing any harm.

The dragon had seen the mysterious girl arrive and save his opponent. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts, evaluating the implication behind enemies reinforces; and doing so cost him time.

The girl immediately faced toward Saar, looking at him with her deep blue eyes. Then she bowed.

"Lord Raal Saar, lord Govan Lune sent me to support your retreat."

He looked behind. Two meters away from him, inside the greater arcane wall, he saw the elliptical amalgamation of purple energy and darkness which indicated one end of a [Gate].

He looked back at the dragon lord of wilderness. His contemplation had ended and was now preparing another attack, one that would be powerful enough to penetrate the barrier.

He looked at the young girl in front of him, fully equipped for battle and specialized as a caster.

He looked at the size of the dragon's horns, smaller due to the spells he used.

He though of how the battle had proceeded so far, how much damage he had suffered, the burns all over his body and how the dragon was now back to full health.

The terrain condition, the number advantage, the level difference. The thought of one last offense with the support of the caster crossed his mind. He weighted them all with his desire of vengeance, and then he decided.

He opened his inventory and retrieved the last item he had obtained, the [Crown of pale silver]. He placed it on his head, looked at the dragon one last time and activated its special ability.

In a corner of his mind, the dragon lord of wilderness's location appeared with crystalline clarity.

Then, he turned his back at him. He faced the portal, and went through.

Once he was gone, the girl rose from her bowing position.

She walked toward the portal, gave one last hateful look at the dragon, and then disappeared through the gate; leaving behind her the screams of anger and the incoming dragon's attack.

* * *

The walls were adorned with paintings of incredible quality, fine woven tapestry and countless weapons of all kinds and shapes. Windows let the sunlight illuminate their path, together with the many chandeliers enchanted with [Continual light] hanging down the ceiling.

Govan Lune was walking down the hallways accompanied by his entourage, composed of five NPCs. In front of them, always a couple of steps behind him, there was the twin-tailed girl. When she went to rescue his friend, he had a chance to check his old notes and read her name. Neraal.

When the two of them crossed the gate, he felt he was about to throw up. The smell of burned flesh had spread throughout the entire room even before they had completely entered. He felt nauseated by the mere thought of how he must have looked below the mask.

He had wanted to ask him countless questions about what had happened to him. When the divination had finally activated he saw a giant sphere of fire. Then it disappeared and inside se saw his friend fighting a dragon. A dragon. There were dragons out there. And when he had arrived he was covered in blood. Just what had happened to him?

However, before he had the chance to say anything, a castle maid had arrived with a message from the guild master. Which lead back to the reason why he was now walking down that hallway.

They were about to have an emergency meeting to discuss the situation.

The hallway felt eternal, but a long walk was probably what he needed to reorder his thoughts.

When they finally reached the hallway's end, he saw a large and massive door, crafted out of precious magical wood and reinforced with an exquisite decoration made out of legendary game's metal. It was guarded by four NPCs, equipped with golden full plate armors and two double-handed long swords on each of their sides.

The armors covered the entirety of the body, the helmets barely allowed to see their eyes. They all wore magical enchanted white capes that gave them endless stamina, high resistance to mind affecting skills and denied the need to eat and sleep.

They were rather intimidating to look at.

They stood guarding the door with crossed arms, unmoving to the point that one could easily mistake them for statues. They were the highest leveled spawns inside Killian's flying castle, the white capes.

He stopped a couple of meters away from them. They all respectfully bowed as one. The movements were so precise that they seemed to be each other's reflection.

In the corner of the room, several other NPCs were waiting. They were divided in six smaller groups of about five members each. Some of their faces were somewhat familiar.

As the guild master's message stated, they had to leave their entourages outside and enter alone.

The white capes stepped aside, freeing the passage as the door slowly opened before him.

He looked in front of him, and he entered the room.


	4. Chapter 4: Discussion

Chapter 4: Discussion

The stained-glass window let the sun's rays enter the thrones room, coloring everything within in a faint ruby light. The walls were adorned with finely crafted tapestries, testament of epic battles of the past and depictions of epic challenges.

Primordial caryatids and atlantes were sustaining the immense dome, from which an equally enormous golden chandelier was hanging; however, it didn't produce any light, leaving the task to cast away darkness entirely to the sun.

The rays fell in the middle of the room, where six individuals were sitting in front of a round table.

Two of the eight seats were empty; one two seats to his right, while the other was right in front of him. That throne was different from the others. It was larger, more decorated and of an even darker tonality of black. It was the seat reserved for the guild master.

To its right, partially covered by the shadow projected by his own throne, Raal was sitting perfectly immobile. His arms crossed over his chest, the hood covering his head; hadn't it been for the white mask concealing his face, one might even doubt his very presence.

He was often amazed by how proficient Raal was in concealment; he was among the few in the guild able to stand his ground against him in a duel.

He wondered what was he doing now, he hadn't moved a single muscle ever since he arrived. Was he thinking about something? Was he trying to recover? Or was he observing them from under the mask?

Truth to be told, he had never been the social type; they had never met in real life and he knew little to noting about him. Raal worked together with them, completed the tasks he was given with great efficiency and occasionally discussed with them about various topics; however he sometimes used to have an unpleasant feeling whenever he was around him, as if he was keeping his distance from them. But now…

He shifted his attention to his right hand. It was pale, cold; just like the rest of his body.

About nine hours ago, he had died. His heart wasn't beating, his lungs served no purpose beyond making his vocal cords vibrate and his body was as cold as the marble round table he was sitting at.

When the game had ended he lost his home, his family, his world and his identity, as well as his life. He was now a vampire, a lord of the night, an undead.

He had no emotions, no fatigue, no sleepiness or anything else that a living body could feel. He would never be able to experience joy, he would never sleep, nor he could have dreams ever again. He was empty; he lost something so important to be considered a part of his very identity, yet he now had only a vague memory of what that even was. With every hour that passed he was less and less sure of what exactly he had lost.

It was ironic. As midnight was approaching he was ready to lose something, and he lost everything else instead.

He wasn't even sure to be the one that lost the most.

Two seats away from him, on the left side of the table, a man was holding his head in resignation.

He was Zaiho Jaali, an excellent crafter in their guild and a good friend in real life. He appeared to be in his late twenties, with a chiseled face and a robust build.

He was visibly shaken, with a blank expression on his face repeatedly alternating with one of despair and one of rage. He held his head in his right hand, struggling to maintain whatever calm he had left.

Unlike him, he was still human; but he had aged a decade overnight. The main focus of his attention however didn't seemed to be the years of life he had lost, but rather the condition his body was in.

His left arm, for lack of a better term, was an elaborate and balanced combination of metal and mana. It was very fascinating to look at; it was essential in its look, some might even call it crude, but there was something about it that inspired him. It mimicked the structure of the bones in a human arm, while at the same time strengthening it with additional support. Instead of the fingers there were three claws, long and sharp like the ones of a predator.

The metal arm followed Zaiho's every movement, responding to him as if it was a living part of his body. Its only problem was however the fact that it was actually replacing his arm. It wasn't an enhancement, it was a prosthesis.

As a crafter his performance in battle was limited, so he decided to acquire a fairly rare cash shop item meant for crafters in a situation similar to his. It was called [living metal], a one-use-only item that would permanently increase the stats of the one that used it.

It was restricted only to the ones possessing high-level crafter classes, and a player couldn't make use of it more then once. To identify crafters that made use of [living metal] their appearance was changed in the game, showing the metal covering many parts of their characters in an easily recognizable pattern. The game text mentioned the metal eating away the flesh and fusing to the soul, thus becoming one with the crafter.

Zaiho had lost all his limbs except for the right arm, as well as his right eye and most likely other parts of his body covered by his clothes; all replaced by the [living metal].

He looked at his friend, sorrowful over the loss of most of his body. Once he would have felt sadness for his condition, anger over how much their lives had been changed, desperation for what had happened to them… Now there was nothing.

He closed his eyes and searched within himself, searched for anything that resembled an emotion, anything that could make him feel human. In the barren emptiness of his soul, where only darkness and void seemed to exist, he found a single fragment of his past humanity.

Melancholy.

That was the most he could feel.

He looked in front of him, to the one seated at the left of the guild master's throne. It would seem that some amongst them were considerably more satisfied than others regarding their current situation.

If Raal, sitting to the right of the throne, was as silent as he was inscrutable, Shen, sitting to the other side, was the very opposite.

He had an overwhelming presence, hadn't he lost his emotions in the unlife he would have felt uneasy to be in the same room as him. He was gigantic, towering over everyone else in there with his massive body.

He would measure over two meters and thirty while standing; his shoulders were so large that he managed to occupy the entire width of the throne he was sitting on. His muscles were so hard and compact they offered the same degree of protection as legendary level armors. He was the biggest human he had ever seen.

According with how they customized the appearance of their characters some monks could be surprisingly muscular, but in Shen's case he might have brought it a little too far.

His hairs were short and messy; their intense red color was in strong contrast with the black karategi he was wearing. On his waist, a large golden chain was serving the function of a belt.

The karategi was only partially closed, proudly showing the muscular torso below. The sleeves had long been torn off as well, showing his trunk-like arms while at the same time removing handholds for grapples and other combat maneuvers he could face. The lower part of the karategi was also in similar condition, with the part below the knee being torn off as well.

His appearance was rather unconventional, but his avatar was the opposite of who he was in real life. A strong body able to do everything; the large smile he had kept on his face ever since he arrived was at the very least understandable.

He moved his attention to another of the few other people in the room.

Leisurely sat at his right, the most beautiful girl had had ever seen in his entire life was smiling as well.

She was young, an otherworldly beauty just out of her teens. She was comfortably sitting on her throne, her legs crossed, gently caressing one of her own tails.

Two white fox ears popped out of her hairs. Her golden eyes were hypnotizing to look at, with long irises reminding him of carnivores.

Ayaki didn't seem to have any problem with her new body either. As long as they remained in their human from, kitsunes were nearly identical to human, aside for the fox ears and the several tails.

What was she so enthusiastic for? He knew very little of her as well. She never told them anything about her private life, though unlike Raal she was much easier to get along with.

Her violin was nowhere to be seen, as was the case with his swords and everyone's weapons. When they were called for the meeting he perfectly understood the decision to not allow the "servants" to follow them inside, but what was the purpose behind them having to leave all their weapons outside as well? To prevent incidents from happening? To make them feel more safe? Or something else entirely?

He closed his eyes in contemplation. It wasn't like him to overthink something to that extent, but he just couldn't help to raise those questions.

Why wasn't the one that organized the meeting there with them? Why when he previously asked to see him, an NPC told him he couldn't be disturbed? Was there a reason for them being in such situation?

He kept those questions for himself. The atmosphere in the room was tense; no one had uttered a single word. They had remained there in absolute silence ever since they arrived.

Only one of them was breaking the oppressive quietness of the room, repeatedly tapping her fingers on the table.

He opened his eyes and looked at the girl sitting to his left.

She had a voluptuous body, covered in a long dark robe with light plated armor on her chest and forearms. An intricate silvery diadem kept her jet-black hairs from her face, while seven different holy symbols were hanging down from a necklace on her chest.

Izora had begun tapping her fingers on the table shortly after she arrived. She was clearly doing so out of nervousness; the quietness of the thrones room was too much for her to handle, especially under the current circumstances. That however didn't change the fact it only made the silence feel even more oppressive.

He looked at the overly large table in front of them. It was created to host all the guild members at once, a round table for over one hundred and fifty people. Now there were only eight seats, two of which were empty.

The several meters of distance between them, as well as the imposing decorations of the room, were an obstacle sufficient to discourage any conversation. They also had no privacy; the others would immediately notice whatever they did or said. The round table was meant to facilitate conversation, but with so few people it just contributed to the unpleasant atmosphere.

The sound of the door behind him slowly opening brought him back from his thoughts. Everyone else's attention shifted on the one entering the room, following his slow steps as he moved toward his seat.

When the newcomer finally entered his field of view, he was able to identify him as Govan. He was wearing long dark robes, the kind commonly associated with wizards, covering the entirety of his body save for his face and hands. His forehead was partially covered by a hood that, combined with the rest of his clothes, made identifying the correct shape of his body rather hard.

His head was extremely similar to the one of a crow, with little to no resemblance to human ones. Attached to his belt there were several scrolls and potions, as well as small pouches and many other useful items ready for use. On the few exposed areas of his body he could see a couple of magical symbols shining in a faint light, result of a class he picked a long time ago.

He slowly walked to his place and sat upon the throne without saying a word, another victim to the atmosphere formed in the room.

Abelkin disliked the position of his throne. Aside for having the light directly in his eyes, since he was giving his back to the door he couldn't see who was entering the room until they reached his side. One would think everyone to be equal at a round table, but there always were positions better than others regardless of the context. Even the guild master's throne was different from theirs.

As they all waited in silence for the guild master to arrive, Abelkin thought about the light entering the room.

Setting his emotions aside, how would the vampirization affect him?

Low leveled vampires suffered substantial penalties under the sun's light. Would he have problems to walk under the sun? It shouldn't affect him at his level, but there was much he did not knew about his body.

Another thing he was oblivious of was his alimentation. Undeads don't require nourishment, but vampires were infamous in literature for their constant blood thirst. Given the attention he built his character with, few players knew as well as him how a vampire was affected by blood. His doubts however resided in whether he would have been forced to hunt down for blood, as vampires did in literature, or if he could have spent the rest of his existence without sustenance, as was the case with the undeads of the game.

He currently felt no urge to feed; but he constantly made his character prey on his enemies, so he might have been sated only for the time being.

The sound of heavy steps slowly approaching from outside the room brought him back to reality. The one advancing toward them ought to have an enormous body to be heard even from the outside, and the one they were waiting for did have his size as one of his most noticeable characteristics.

The door slowly opened, allowing the last arriver to finally join them.

"All hail the arrival of the king of kings, lord Azul Val Khan, master of the flying castle and grand ruler of Azoth."

The unknown voice, even if for just a second, managed to give him something he had tried desperately to achieve for hours. Fear, shock, confusion; he had a brief taste of the powerful emotions he thought lost forever.

The awareness of the fact didn't however overshadow the presence of an unknown individual entering their private meeting.

Azul slowly proceeded toward his throne; his steps echoed throughout the entirety of the room, a hard and metallic sound that reminded him of hammers striking the floor. Izora had stopped tapping her fingers on the table the very moment the door opened; she was now avoiding direct eye contact, visibly unsettled. Ayaki had also lost part of her relaxed attitude.

Azul was over two and a half meters tall, able to look at them from the top down with ease. His body was even more impressive than Shen's, with muscles so powerful no one would have ever believed existed before personally seeing them. He was covered in bone plates that granted an enhanced natural armor, with sharp horns coming out from multiple places of his body.

A pair of large bat-like wings was closed on his back in a posture that resembled a large mantle. He was wearing a golden crown that mixed perfectly with the several horns on his head. His eyes were like embers on fire, piercing through them at every gaze.

He gave the mental image of a barbarian king, regal and brutal at the same time.

Following the demon there was a slim humanoid figure floating in the air. His long silver hairs reached the height of his waist, gently fluctuating along with his movements. A black blindfold covered his eyes, while his hands were shining in an intense red light.

Etched in his skin there were several lines covering the entirety of his body, channeling the red light all over him. He seemed incredibly fragile, so weak that it felt like a single gust of wind would be enough to blow him away.

The voice that spoke earlier belonged to him, an NPC.

The guild contained hundreds of custom made NPCs; it was impossible to remember them all, and he didn't cared much for them in the first place. As the vice-guild master the only noteworthy ones were the NPCs placed in key locations, especially the lv 100 ones.

He quickly went trough his mental list to find out the identity of the man following Azul like a shadow.

The answer came quickly, but it gave him no comfort. He was Alkadeias, a lv 100 NPC usually kept in the great hall. Other than protecting the area from potential invaders, he had the task to help manage the entirety of the guild base. They used him to operate the other NPCs remotely; during previous invasions he had proven extremely useful also in locating the invaders and coordinating the white capes' attacks.

The reason for what had now weakened to the point of just being concern was his presence in the thrones room, especially considering the circumstances they were currently in. They had been asked to leave all the NPCs outside, and they all did so as it would allow them to talk freely with each other; but not only had Azul brought an NPC with him, he had brought one specialized in mind magic with a great focus on telepathy. For all they knew he could have already read their minds and figured out everything.

The demon sat on his giant throne, towering over them even while sitting, the psion floating to his right.

How many of them were protected against telepathic investigation? He and Azul were both pro-players with racial immunity and resistance from mind affecting abilities; they were safe.

Under the right circumstances Raal was also considerable a pro player, and even though his defenses were very bad there was no way he would fall for it either.

Govan, Shen and Zaiho all kept always equipped items to shield them from mind manipulation, while Izora worshiped a deity that gave her protection against it.

This only left out Ayaki; as far as he knew, without first buffing herself with a song she was defenseless against mind-based abilities. If Alkadeias wanted to read her mind, there would be nothing to stop him.

He looked at his right. She was visibly nervous, understandable considering the situation. She was vulnerable, and she knew it.

There wasn't any visible evidence of her mind being invaded, but if it had happened and she didn't manage to give them a signal then they were all compromised.

He looked at the opposite side of the table. Alkadeias was between Azul and Raal, if need be one could activate his flaming aura while the other strikes at a vital area. Even if they were unarmed they remained heteromorphic creatures specialized in physical combat, and they were flaking him. They could end him before any damage was done.

He looked at the guild master in his fiery eyes, trying to make him understand what he was thinking. The two looked at each other for a moment that seemed to go on forever, none of them blinking once.

In the end the demon calmly looked at his right, where the psion was floating.

"That would be sufficient, you may now return to perform your duties."

The man looked back at Azul with a complex expression on his face.

"My lord, please, let me remain and assist you. It is my duty as the hand of the kings to aid, support and advice the kings in everything. How can I do so if I am not allowed to remain at your presence in this time of need?"

Azul smiled at him. Even though the razor-sharp fangs made him look like a predator about to devour a defenseless animal, he somehow managed to not make his demonic expression seem utterly terrifying.

"Your devotion is noticed and appreciated, but what we are about to discuss is a secret that can be shared only between the kings. We cannot make exceptions, not even for you."

There was a brief moment of silence; he couldn't interpret at all the expression the telepath assumed. Then the floating man silently bowed and them, tilting the upper half of his body while placing his right hand on the chest. He finally floated outside the room without saying a word, leaving the eight of them sitting alone around the table.

When the door shut at his back, the demon looked once more at him in the eyes. The two of them kept staring at each other in absolute silence for an interminable moment, none of them averting the gaze.

Once again, it was the demon the one to break the silence.

"Abelkin, is there something you wish to say?"

The vampire gestured at his back with his head, breaking eye contact in the process.

"What was that?"

The demon leaned toward him, laying his massive right forearm on the table.

"Alkadeias, I though you knew about him."

His voice was calm, clear. He didn't show any concern about the situation.

"You brought a telepath in this room. Do you realize the consequences this could lead to?"

Azul didn't move an inch; his calm was causing him to get annoyed. Apparently his emotions weren't as hard to find and he had previously thought.

"I brought no one here. I came and he followed me inside. If you are so scared about these "consequences", know the reason of my delay was I verifying whether he was trustworthy or not. I questioned him for hours and he himself defined reading our minds as an "unforgivable sin against the kings". There is no need to worry about him, he is loyal."

Abelkin stared once more at the demon in the eyes. It took a while for his emotions to be suppressed; the irritation he felt was surprisingly strong. Once his mind had returned in a state of calm, he looked away.

"Whatever, let's get on with this."

The demon quickly looked at all of them, just the time to make a quick estimation of everyone's condition.

"We should start by addressing the most important issue first. Can we all agree that what has happened is real?"

They all nodded in affirmation. None of them could deny what was happening as a dream or a virtual reality.

"Very well. Now that we have agreed this is real, what is "this"? We are in the bodies of our characters, inside our guild base and all the NPCs have come to life."

At his left, Shen leaned forward and expressed his thoughts.

"I think we entered the game. It's the first thing that comes to mind."

"It's not that simple."

The monk looked at his left. Govan was shaking his head.

"Shortly after we arrived I went to the library and made the weavers perform a scan of the surrounding area. They couldn't identify this place as any of the nine worlds or known sub-maps. I think that rather than us being trapped in the game, we have been dragged to a third unknown location with our avatars and equipment from the game."

Shen looked at the wizard with a puzzled expression.

"How is that different?"

"For instance" he answered, "While we were experts of the game layout, here we now have limited knowledge even of what is in our immediate surroundings."

The two of them looked at Azul. He pondered for a few seconds while observing the others; no one had anything else to add.

"Is there anyone that opposes to the hypothesis of we being dragged in a different real world with characters, equipment and everything else from the game?"

None of them objected that reasoning. Personally, nothing of what he had seen thus far suggested otherwise and he had already formed analogue theories in his mind.

Before the demon could continue, Zaiho stepped in.

"Ok, we are all on the same page. But what do we do now?"

His friend was looking at the guild master on the verge of a crisis, his metal claw on the table for everyone to see.

"Our first step would be putting together everything we have discovered thus far and trying to see what we can make out of that; so let's go around the table. Shen, have you found anything out?"

The monk wore a confidant expression.

"Yes. From when we arrived to before being called for the meeting I have been using my new body non-stop. It is superior in everything compared to the real world."

He looked at his right hand closed in a fist, his lips curved into a smile.

"I have been pushing myself to the limit for hours without even getting tired. It's simply amazing; I can move my body exactly the way I want to. If I can think of something, my body can easily do it."

The demon nodded.

"I see. What about your game skills? Are you able to use your Ki?"

The smile grew even larger.

"I received your message when I was beginning to use it, but I did manage to test a few Ki powers."

"Very well. We will discuss this further later on. Govan, have you discovered anything else?"

The crow-faced wizard nodded affirmatively.

"Yes. The NPCs I have met thus far referred to me as if I were some kind of noble. They did everything I asked them to do without questioning. They are able to use their game abilities, for example I saw the head librarian use one of his skills. That aside, I am able to cast the same spells I was able to use in the game, though some of them behave slightly differently. As I mentioned earlier, I also went to the library and made the weavers perform a scan of the surrounding area."

The tengu moved his hands up in the air and the space bent in a circle around them. He then grabbed something within it with both hands and pulled it out of the inventory; it was a sizable tapestry roll.

He placed it on the table and pushed away with both hands to unroll it. Even tough it couldn't even reach the middle of the table; everyone could see the giant map of the area.

"The spell's radius was large enough to cover the entirety of a single world from Yggdrasil, but here it's enough for just a portion of one."

He looked at the map the wizard brought with great interest. The nine worlds were massive maps, storing all the contents created in over a decade. One could constantly explore the game for years and he would still have seen but a fraction of it. For their current world to be larger than the game's ones, its size must be comparable to the real one.

"This map marks our location roughly an hour ago. The flying castle is here, while Raal was there."

Govan spoke while indicating at two points on the map far away from each other.

Seeing the map's level of detail, the area it described and the speed they had been able to produce one, Abelkin voiced the course of action that appeared obvious in his mind.

"We should make some more."

The avian wizard's eyes left the map and went on him.

"Mapping the territory is a long, dangerous and tedious process, but we have a way to quickly and safely do so. We should repeat this process using other spells to obtain better maps, though we should avoid using spells like [detect life] and other bases that might trigger the aggro of everyone in thousands of kilometers strong enough to sense our detection. Govan, what was the base for this map?"

Govan brought his attention back at the map, indicating the larger point he previously stated to represent the castle.

"The base spell was [Locate named object], cast on our medallions to pinpoint our position. I just wanted to see how many of us were here, the other information weren't required; however we can still see the division between land and sea, as well as the approximate location of the taller mountains."

They gave another look at the map. Even if basic, it would still be extremely useful in the short future.

"Very well." Intervened the demon. "Excellent job, Govan. Having a map is certainly useful in our situation. After this meeting we can proceed with Abelkin's suggestion and start producing maps with the specific information we need. For now let's continue with the previous topic. Ayaki, do you have anything to add?"

The kitsune looked at the demon, seemingly more used to her unholy interlocutor than she was a few minutes ago.

"Only a few details."

All those whom had spoken thus far did so with a voice different than their true one. The voices they gained along with their new bodies had little resemblance to their old ones, but regardless of how guttural and hoarse they were, way more striking characteristics were attracting the others' attention.

Ayaki was a stunningly beautiful demi-human, with white fox ears, golden feral eyes and nine long tails, yet her voice was by far the most spectacular thing about her new body. It was simply hypnotizing, her every word seized their attention in a vortex of charm and attraction. Rather than speaking, it was like if she was singing the most beautiful song they had ever heard.

"I have left the castle for a few minutes and scouted our immediate surroundings. We are currently flying above a mountainous forest. Several creatures were charmed by one of my passive abilities, more than monsters they seemed to be regular animals."

Silence, Azul remained immobile for a while before finally snapping back to reality.

"I see. Have you got an idea of their average levels?"

Ayaki nodded graciously.

"They were primarily small animals; squirrels and other rodents, as well as owls and wild cats. A few wolves arrived as well. Nothing of what I saw was above level five; most of them probably don't even have a level."

Abelkin though about the implications of what had just been shared. Ecosystems exist in an extremely precarious balance formed over decades. If wolves were part of an ecosystem they were most likely at its peak, another stronger predator would only compete with them over food. Even though she had only done a quick examination, it was unlikely for any noteworthy species to be in their immediate surroundings.

"There is also the matter of the white capes."

He immediately began to pay more attention.

"Shortly after I left, they followed me below. They insisted I needed a proper escort when leaving the castle and then asked me to return here."

She looked at the guild master in his ember eyes.

"They can think independently. Should we trust them?"

The demon slowly nodded.

"Ascertaining the reliability of the NPCs is something we should all be doing in the coming days. For now I managed to verify Alkadeias'. He is loyal."

He paused a moment to make sure everyone was looking at him.

"I will share what I have discovered once everyone else has done so, but know that the NPCs doesn't constitute an immediate threat as long as we don't act rashly. Everyone seems to have instinctively done so, but keep sticking to your characters."

He once more waited a few seconds to verify everyone was agreeing. Then he looked at him.

"Good, let's continue. Abelkin, anything to say?"

Everyone's attention was on him. He thought about the last few hours. How he changed.

For a moment he wanted to let them know of his loss, of how he struggled to feel emotion. Then, with the clarity of mind he gained in the undeath, he discarded that thought. If the others knew his mind had changed along with his body, it would only bring problems later on.

"Just a few details to add about what Shen and Ayaki said."

The gigantic monk's expression suddenly became more interested.

"I have experimented with my body as well. Other than vastly superior physical abilities and game skills, I believe we have also gained all our character's other capabilities."

A puzzled expression appeared on some of their faces. He would need to be clearer.

"In the real world I was a fairly skilled fencer…" that was a preposterous understatement; he was a five times champion of the regionals and classified fourth at the nationals the previous year. "… but I was never able to efficiently dual wield during practice. My character however uses two swords at once, and now I can do so as well."

The tengu's eyes closed slightly in what probably was confusion.

"That is weird, I don't feel like I have gained any sword skill. Are you sure you actually learned how to dual wield?"

Govan had a point. Olympic champions would train most of their lives to reach a level far below the one he was currently able to perform at, but he had mastered the technique over night; anyone would find it hard to believe. However, after thinking back to his earlier stunning performance, it was undeniable he was now a better swordsman than anyone whom had ever lived in his world.

Still, not having his swords with him to give a demonstration as proof, he had to find a good way to explain it from another prospective.

"Earlier you mentioned to be able to use magic."

The avian wizard nodded to confirm his statement.

"Think about it. In the real world magic doesn't exist, but here you can use it. Swords aren't anything we cannot comprehend, and here I can use them. You have levels that make you able to properly use magic; I have levels that do the same with swords. From a certain point of view, it's more natural for me to be a swordsman than for you to be a wizard."

Assuming this was correct, they all possessed their character's complete array of abilities. Govan likely didn't improve his traditional fighting abilities because he didn't have non spell-casting job classes.

The feathered sorcerer massaged his beak with his right hand, evaluating the logic of his argument. His behavior still showed traces of doubt.

"Are you sure that's the case? The fighters in the game need to rely on their true world reflexes, while magic caster use a console. I think pushing a button with my mind is easier than moving my body at superhuman levels."

That was another good point, but there was a flaw; they were talking about a game, not a simulation.

First requirement of all games is to be enjoyable for their target audience. A game that cannot be fully played unless you are able to actually perform all of your character's actions would most likely be a terrible product. Games are designed to make highly difficult actions possible to perform for the average man, turning complex tasks in trivial activities.

Yggdrasil's developers, as hated as they were for the unreasonably high skill gate they forced the players through, still designed the game to be playable for normal people. The fighting system was yes reliant on real life reflexes, but most of the other dozens of factors required in a fight were ignored. In other words, fighting in the game was easier than in real life, and the system that made it so still affected them.

As Abelkin was about to voice his thoughts, a firm voice put the discussion to a halt before it could conclude.

"I believe there will be better occasions to discuss the theory behind the skill improvement, for now let's just focus on the facts."

Azul looked at him, hinting he should continue before the discussion resumed.

"Dual wield and similar swordsmanship improvements aside, I have only speculations. I think we should have a way to do everything our characters could, it's just a matter of understanding how."

The demon nodded.

"Anything else?"

"Nothing relevant." he lied. He wondered if he was the only one concealing possibly relevant information from the others.

"Very well. That's good to know, half of us fight primarily in melee. If we had to learn how to do it on our own we would be spending years training on the basis. Well then, let's continue. Izora, what can you tell us?"

The beautiful woman at his left quickly cleared her throat.

"I haven't actually been able to verify much about my body, however I have learned a lot about the NPCs."

That was the kind of information he was waiting for. Azul also seemed considerably interested in what she was about to say.

"I was in the temple shortly before the game shut down, and ever since we got here I have remained in it. I don't know if it's only for the ones over there or if this goes for everyone else as well, but they worship us."

He had already noticed that many of them showed an extremely deferential attitude, but "worshiping" sounded to him a little too strong.

"We talked about what they know, what they think. Their memory from the game is blurred; they remember a couple of things, but they have the absolute certainty it's reality."

"What do they remember?" Azul interrupted her with a question that needed immediate answering.

Izora hesitated a second before speaking.

"Not much. They know our names and are aware of our general behaviors. Some remember small fragments of things that happened next to them, and they all remember the most noteworthy moments of the guild. As a general rule, I would say that they remember everything that involved them directly."

Silence fell once more into the room. Abelkin was going through everything he did to the NPCs while they were in game, as the others were most likely doing as well. The first NPCs dated back to six years ago; there was no way to tell if they had ever been cruel to any of them.

In a game where the profanity filter prevented you from committing obscenities the fun was largely found in killing. Killing or harming your NPCs was both stupid and boring, as they would cost a lot of gold coins to resurrect and there were more interesting fights elsewhere. As far as he knew, there wasn't a single player that spent his time harming his own NPCs.

The problem then was when they caused them to die in other ways.

The guild had been conquered twice in the past, and in both occurrences several hundreds levels worth of NPCs had been slain in the process to defend the castle. In both circumstances they managed to get the guild back before the usurper could do too much damage, but the NPCs would most likely have memories of those periods.

"From the discussion I had with the angels in the temple they also all remember who created them. That aside, they are surprisingly more human than you would think."

The demon took a long breath. He was thinking about the implications of what she said. Abelkin could guess what he was pondering over; having a guild filled with hundreds of sentient individuals you know little about is already problematic, but if those individual also all have their memories and a history of relationships you never paid attention to, then the problem is exponentially more complex.

"Do they suspect anything about us? Have you told them anything about the game?"

She shook her head.

"I've already told you, they worship us. The angels I spoke with all spontaneously told me they would happily give their lives for me. Their loyalty is so high that's actually kind of creepy."

The demon nodded, an unreadable expression on his face.

"I see. Investigating their past was dangerous, but we would have eventually needed to do so anyway. Very well, that at least clarifies some doubts I had with what I gathered. Moving on, Zaiho, what do you bring us?"

The room was silent once more. The man was motionless, tired, broken. He closed his eyes for a few moments, loudly inhaling and exhaling a couple of times.

He then opened his eyes and looked at the demon with a conflicted expression on his face. Abelkin couldn't understand what he was thinking about.

"…Not much."

The words came out slowly from his mouth, it was clear he was having troubles maintaining his calm. He moved his large metal claw to the side, readjusting his position on the throne.

"At midnight I was in the forge. After we were dragged here I had some… difficulties with the new situation."

A shadow flashed over his face. Painful memories must have been crossing his mind.

"I have seen broken objects repairing on their own in front of me. I think the game system still affects us to some degree. The experience system might still be working, as well as the re-spawn one."

Why he knew it? Where had he found broken objects?

The answers to those questions were likely tied to the precarious mental state his friend was in. It appeared he hadn't accepted the new situation with the same ease of the others.

Beside, a game system still functioning in the new world had several implications. One active system implied the possibility that all of them could potentially function as well, and worse, some could function differently than what they were used to.

Azul remained in silence for a while, pondering over the new information.

"Anything else?"

Zaiho slowly shook his head. There was nothing more to be said.

"I see. Then it's Raal's turn."

Azul looked at his left, where their guild-mate had remained in silence the whole time.

"I know you have been outside as well. Anything to say?"

The assassin remained immobile; the mask prevented them from reading emotions on his face. Abelkin knew within himself Raal had been studying them the entire time.

"There is a lot that needs to be said."

He partially came out of the shadows that were covering his body and leaned his elbows on the table, slowly joining his hands in front of him.

"I will proceed with order."

His head moved to face the guild leader; his every movement was executed in absolute silence. Raal never explained too much about how he built his character, he shared with them only the general capabilities they needed to know when exploring a dungeon together; that aside, everything they knew about him were things they saw him doing and assumptions. In the game it wasn't necessary to know anything more, but now that he was in the same room as him he faintly regretted not having looked into his capabilities.

"Setting aside geographical and zoological related information, I came in contact with a settlement."

Everyone in the room reacted to that. Regardless of where they were, they now knew they weren't alone.

"It is a large city, fortified by walls and surrounded by farming fields, with streets leading to it from multiple directions. I observed it remotely to gather information. I estimate its inhabitants to be in the hundreds of thousands, though that it's just based on the size of the city and the density of people on the streets. Walls, buildings and structures are all reminiscent of the western-European middle ages. From what I have been able to observe, it would seem that their mechanical advancements and culture are also roughly of the same period."

The demon looked at him with an illegible expression on his face.

"You mean to say we are in the middle ages?"

"No. Rather than having travelled back in time, I would say our previous hypothesis was correct. We are in a different world with a less advanced civilization compared to our own."

The demon remained in silence for a moment, evaluating the implications of what was just reported. Then he gestured the assassin to continue.

"Within the city, the economy isn't dissimilar from our world's past. There is a currency system, markets in the streets and the goods are primarily food, with a minority of tools and accessories."

He paused for a second.

"Slavery also appears to be legalized."

Of the eight present, only three were humans. Abelkin couldn't yet read well the visages of inhuman people, but the faces of the ones that retained their humanity all expressed the same emotion. A mix of shock, fear and disgust.

"I observed the beginning of an auction. A satyr was being sold. Everyone else I had seen in the city was human, however they didn't seem too surprised. This is just an assumption, but I would say there are several beast-man in this world."

Beast-man; partially humans and partially animals. They were the most common type of demi-humans. If there was actually such species in this world, it would be a proof against time travel and in favor of them being in a different world.

"I have also found an individual of this world that seems able to perform basic divine spells from the game. According to the way people were talking about it, here using magic is something particularly exceptional; however I wouldn't trust the source too much, the information is likely to have been inflated."

Izora looked at him.

"Can you tell us more about the spell?"

"The spell was a [heal light wounds], the caster a human teenager, the target a cut from a short sword on the palm of a human hand. It would appear she came from a country called Slane Theocracy. There should be several more individuals able to use magic as well over there, yet this information also comes from the same unreliable source as before."

The demon nodded.

"Very well, you did an excellent job. Is there anything else to say?"

"Yes." answered Raal "And it is extremely important."

He had told them about the other inhabitants of that world, slavery, demi-humans and magic, yet he did not use the word "important" for any of them. Whatever he was going to say, he had the undivided attention of Abelkin and everyone else in the room.

"I had a face to face encounter with a dragon."

None of them commented on what he just said. They just remained in silence, waiting for him to continue.

"I was flying away from the city without having activated any concealment ability, I got spotted and intercepted. We had a brief conversation, though it was mostly he interrogating me; he was at least as intelligent as an average human. I think in the city they mentioned him to be something similar to a lord, he also referred to the surroundings as his territory."

Abelkin looked at the other's faces. They all seemed to be reacting differently from one another. Shen seemed to be excited; Zaiho depressed expression had worsened and Govan simply stared at Raal, waiting for him to continue.

Azul was the only one asking for more details

"What have you told him?"

Raal looked back at him. A brief instant of silence preceded his answer.

"I told him my full avatar's name and what species I am from. When he questioned me about where was I from and when I arrived I told him I came from Asgard and that I arrived at midnight. I found out that there shouldn't be onis around here and that his knowledge should be limited to what is inside his own territory."

Raal made another short pause.

"I was also forced to reveal the situation I was in. I explained it as vaguely as possible, I think the exact words were something close to "I have been dragged here without realizing how", I don't think he can get much from that. At least in return I found out that something similar happened a century ago."

Azul stared at Raal's mask, right where the eyes probably were. Through the fiendish lineaments, it was possible to see displeasure on his face.

"That was dangerous. Even if you basically told him nothing, he still managed to link us to a precedent. He might already know about us more than we do. What happened after that?"

Another pause. Abelkin was sure Raal was studying the demon from below the mask.

"He attacked me."

Azul face changed slightly, however he couldn't interpret what emotion the demonic visage was showing. Govan nervously massaged his beak with his anthropomorphic hand, it seemed like he was putting together the pieces of a puzzle in his mind.

"I managed to evade the first attack and attempted to escape, however I was trapped inside a top tier barrier. We battled quite intensely for about a dozen minutes, I was then greatly injured in a single attack and finally I managed to bring the fight to a stalemate. I wore him down for the rest of the fight and in the end I used a technique to finish him of in a single attack."

He paused a second.

"It didn't end well."

He gestured toward Govan on the other side of the table.

"I was about to die when he opened a [Gate] behind me and sent an NPC to help me out."

Azul was staring at the assassin with a dark expression on his face.

"So you lost."

Raal withstood his gaze. As he answered, his words were perfectly calm and measured.

"Technically? Yes."

The demon sighed profoundly.

"How could you loose? Even if alone, I though you would have been able to defeat a single dragon."

"Setting aside yesterday was supposed to be the last day of the game and most of my daily abilities weren't usable, let me clarify one thing. I guarantee that what I fought was everything but the average mob dragon from Yggdrasil. If I were to compare him with something in the game, he would be at least a dungeon boss."

Abelkin thought about the several implications of that statement. Having an entity on the level of a boss roaming the land would be extremely dangerous for them.

He knew Raal to be among the deadliest players in the guild, as well as the third strongest person in the room. If he couldn't defeat a monster in a 1vs1 battle, then the opponent was to be taken seriously. However, before starting to plan how to deal with such a threat, they first needed to assess the danger such dragon posed to them.

"Can you describe us his fighting capabilities?"

The assassin turned to face him.

"He is over twenty meters tall, with two pairs of bat-like wings and deer-like horns. His breath attack is fire based, with long range, adjustable cone size and high DPS. He is either extremely resistant or immune to fire, making him protected from his own attacks. He can use one roughly for up to thirty uninterrupted seconds, then the cool down is equal to the duration. Aside from this, he does not seem to have limits on the long range."

Raal turned his head to face the guild leader.

"He used a limited yet powerful array of skills. He conjured a barrier the size of a mini map able to deal fire damage and prevent teleportation retreats, he could also make it steadily shrink. I assume he also used something analogue to a [complete restoration] to get his entire health back, as well as removing all the de-buffs I used on him. He then created a planar portal to escape one of my skills, used a self-resurrection in conjunction to an AOE post mortem trap, activated a detection ability able to bypass anything I could master in daylight and finally begun to use weak homing attacks in rapid succession that I couldn't outrun or dodge. I assume he also posses other abilities he did not show, but there seems to be a cost for each use."

Raal faced Abelkin once more, observing him from beyond the mask.

"All this on top of high level defensive abilities and almost endless HP. The only times I was able to bring him close to death were after I made him fall for thousands of meters and when I used an instant kill combination. I would estimate his level to be around one hundred and thirty."

They all looked at each other. The dragon was a threat on the level of a game boss, specialized in defense and with possibly a way to counteract every strategy they could use on him.

"Very well Raal, the information you brought us is extremely valuable. Now we have a better understanding of this world."

Azul placed his enormous hands on the table.

"It is now my turn to share what I have found out."

Most of them were still uneasy after hearing about the dangerous monster roaming the land, but they tried to calm down and listened to what their guild master had to say.

"First and foremost, the NPCs. As Izora told us before, they appear to be extremely loyal to us. Inside the castle there is a hierarchy where we stand at the top; the NPCs call us kings. I assume it's due to the guild complete name being "Kings of Azoth". Among ourselves we are all on the same level; the only exceptions are I, as the guild master, and Abelkin, as the vice guild master."

They all looked at each other once more. Being sure the NPCs won't attack them was a huge step forward; as for the internal hierarchy, it was something they could live with.

"Below us there are the custom-made NPCs. First is Alkadeias, then there are the ones we placed in key areas and gave important functions, finally all the others. Below them there are the mercenary NPCs, whose value is directly linked to their level. At the end there are the automatically spawned NPCs, also following the same rule."

The avian wizard raised an arm to catch Azul's attention.

"What about the castle maids?"

"They form a rather large group within the guild. They are custom made, but they shouldn't be any more important than the others we made. They now seem to be tasked with serving us in every way they can. Think of them as just normal humans trying to keep the castle tidy, although I doubt they will have other uses."

"And the white capes?"

The demon looked at Govan with annoyed eyes, he didn't appreciated being interrupted. He then answered the slightly scared wizard's question with firm voice.

"The white capes are the largest group within the guild. Since they served as the troupes we sent toward invaders that managed to pass through the outer defenses they are fairly strong, and now they keep serving as an internal militia and patrol system. They are mostly units summoned through the mercenary system, but some of us created NPCs to operate with the white capes and equipped them with similar items. We can think of them as troupes under our control."

"How much autonomy does the NPCs posses here?"

Abelkin asked the question he had been pondering over ever since he first spoke with one of them. They knew the NPCs would serve them and were loyal, but how human were they? The fact they had gained sentience didn't necessarily meant they would use it. Should they see them as people or tools?

"That remains to be seen. I am currently under the impression they would obey our every command, but we will need to better analyze the way they think."

After briefly checking no one else had anything to ask, he continued with the next point.

"Then there is the matter of the items we posses. Setting aside the ones we kept in the vault, most of the other guild members had left their items somewhere in the guild. I already ordered a few NPCs to collect them and bring everything to the vault. After this, we should all go there and see if there is anything we can use. Zaiho, do you think you could be able to re-forge some of them if the need arises?"

The metal covered human shook his head.

"I don't know. I never built anything in real life. Before trying to re-forge valuable items, I should first carry out tests with worthless ones. If Abelkin is right and we picked up skills based on our levels then it should be possible, I think."

The demon nodded.

"Very well then. What about the world items we conquered? Are they safe?"

Izora nodded.

"I am sure I saw the one we keep in the temple when I was there."

The demon then looked at the wizard, implying it was his turn to answer.

"I didn't actually checked whether it was in my room or not, but if the one in the temple is still there then the one I use should also be safe."

Azul sighed at those words.

"First thing you do after we are done here is checking if we still have it. Has any of you seen the other one?"

The giant monk sitting at his right nodded.

"I saw it when I went out in the garden. It's still there."

"Good. If we can use it, then the base is still defendable. Have you seen if the black crystal ring is intact?"

The incredibly tall human shook his head.

"I have seen it, but it goes all around the castle. I didn't saw fractures, but that doesn't mean there aren't."

Azul spent a brief moment thinking about those words.

"I see. Well, that's another thing we need to check."

In Yggdrasil there were several types of guild base one could conquer. They all had both advantages and disadvantages, which directed the guild controlling it toward different strategies.

For instance, a guild controlling a city-base was extremely weak to most styles of invasions, however they could tax the inhabitants of the city and thus receive extra gold to summon mercenaries. This meant they had higher leveled NPCs compared to other guilds and that they could summon specific ones to counteract the invaders.

Tomb-bases were especially weak against slow yet powerful attacks, such as super tier spells specialized for structure damage and floods. However they generally forced the invaders to follow a precise path, allowing the guild to fill it with traps and greatly cut down their numbers before even facing them. Their undead spawn didn't even consumed gold, considerably reducing the maintenance costs.

Flying-bases such as theirs were weak against invasion forces able to fly, as the enemies would be able to attack the base from all directions at once. This was balanced by the fact that flying bases were among the few that could move, making it exponentially harder for the enemies to carry out sieges.

Powerful guilds, especially the wealthiest ones, could use cash shop items to strengthen their bases. For instance, Abelkin had heard some time ago of a guild occupying a tomb-base strengthened to the point of being able to resist the largest scale alliance ever formed in a guild war without ever facing the invaders directly.

It would have been nice to live in such fortress, especially because their castle was targeted quite often.

After the second time they had to re-conquer their own guild, they decided to acquire as much [black crystal] as they could. They then forged a ring around the base and enchanted it with so many data crystals that their reserves were almost depleted. Now whoever attempted to enter the base from anywhere aside the gate would have his mana instantly drop to zero, all the spells affecting him dispelled and their entire equipment worth of usages discharged and deactivated for at least one minute.

[Black crystal] was an exceptionally rare material in the game, as it greatly interfered with all forms of magic and supernatural skills. If properly crafted, it could produce incredible results.

Considering how many data crystals had been used to make the artifact more resistant one could think of it as nearly indestructible, but it was important to remember that in its original state black crystal had hardness of 1. The black crystal ring breaking had been everyone's greatest fear even before it was completed.

As Abelkin was thinking about their past projects a question crossed his mind.

"We have the world item and the black crystal ring, what about the daily barrier? Can we activate it?"

The best way to defend a base was through redundancy; several layers of defense one after the other. If one failed, the next was there ready to step in.

If an invading force were to attack them, the first line of defense would be in the sky outside the castle; as such they had a black crystal ring, a world item and a barrier that could be used once a day. If the first two outer defense systems proved to be insufficient, they could manually trigger a barrier to earn ten minutes of breath to plan a countermeasure. To trigger the barrier they needed to access the base's control menu, and the only way to do so was through a game interface. If they couldn't, they lacked one layer between them and the enemies.

"Yes. I also verified it before coming here. I can still access the base's interface the same way I could before, the options are also the same."

Abelkin felt as much relief as he could. The world item worked well against large groups but functioned poorly when the invaders came with reduced numbers, while the black crystal ring was useless against opponents that didn't relied on mana to fight and could fly using wings. If enemies were to penetrate the outer defenses, there still were both the traps in the gardens and the ones inside the castle itself, but if it came to that they could potentially suffer great losses. If they had another way to keep the enemy out it was a great advantage on their part, and if they could access the base interface then they could also maneuver the castle's flight and summon mercenaries.

"The last point I whish to rise is about the base's sustainability."

Some of them looked at him with a perplexed expression on their faces.

"Many of our NPCs, for instance all the white capes, are equipped with rings of sustenance. However we don't have many undead among them, and most of them still require nourishment."

Abelkin knew. Even though Azul was the guild leader, he had given less and less weight to his responsibilities ever since the shut down was announced. As such, it slowly begun to fall on him, as the vice guild leader, to manage the guild and everything related to it.

Grouping together all the undeads, the monster that didn't required nourishment, the ones equipped with rings of sustenance and the ones able to provide for themselves within the base, there still was over half of them that needed food to survive.

"We have a few NPCs with cook levels to solve that problem for us, but our food reserves are low. Since we all believed the game to end yesterday we didn't bothered to accumulate more than needed. We should still be able to go on for about a week, but by then we will need to find something for them to eat."

The white fox girl looked at the demon with a doubtful expression on her face.

"I have heard there are many guilds possessing magic items able to mass produce large quantities of food. Don't we have one of them?"

Abelkin and Azul looked at each other, silently checking if the other knew about such items being in their possession. In the end it was Abelkin to verbally provide the answer.

"The food produced by those items is a mere substitute. Regardless of how many cook levels you posses, it's impossible to obtain any buff with it. Since we all regularly grinded in many areas we are advantaged in, we ended up with a regular and abundant income of resources. As some of us often hunted down monsters that dropped several high level ingredients, we never had the need to quest for an item unable to do so."

The demon sighed once more.

"Our problem is exactly that. In the game we had over one hundred players regularly logging in every day, each contributing to our stable income. Now there are just eight of us, yet the base consumption hasn't diminished. The items we hoarded are still all in the vault, but the ones required to keep the base functioning are steadily going to run dry."

That was an extremely urgent problem. Abelkin quickly made a mental list of all the resources they needed and could only acquire from outside the base.

"The food is our first priority. The chefs are able to cook virtually anything as long as they have the ingredients. We have a week to generate a stable food income."

All eyes went on him. Azul intensely stared at him from the opposite side of the table.

"Then we need gold. Many of our guild's functions consume considerable amounts of it. We must verify if the game system that rewarded us with gold for killing monsters is still in place, otherwise we must either find another way to obtain gold or stop spending it."

Izora raised her hand, attracting his attention.

"We should also verify exactly what counts as gold. In the game it was a currency, but here we might be able to just spend any type of gold coin. If we can't, there might be a way to forge game money using this world's gold."

He nodded in agreement.

"You are right. We need to verify it as soon as possible. Then, after food and gold, we need to acquire other kinds of resources, though they aren't as urgent as these two."

Azul slowly placed both his hands on the table, producing a clean sound. They all looked back at him, waiting for what he wanted to say. Abelkin was always impressed by the guild leader's ability to quickly attract everyone's attention with a simple motion.

"Very well, it would seem we all have shared everything with the others. Is there anything we forgot to address?"

No one in the room responded affirmatively.

"Good, let's proceed then. First, we must prioritize our safety."

Azul pointed his fang toward the map, indicating the point where Raal encountered the dragon.

"Our main concern at the moment is the dragon roaming the land. I suggest we move in the opposite direction, toward the sea, to distance ourselves from him as much as possible."

The demon indicated the area southwest of the castle with a gesture, then he resumed talking.

"Once we reach the coast, we will fly over the sea. By Raal's description, the dragon appears to be a land creature; if we can go far enough from the land he won't be able to follow. We will then try to solve the food shortage by fishing. Security wise there shouldn't be problems, as we will be flying over the sea and water dwelling monsters rarely posses the ability to fly. Does anyone have a better suggestion?"

Evade, and the enemy will follow. Hide, and he will waste time searching while you execute your strategy. Abelkin looked at the man who once said those words after their first duel. Raal had made a character almost entirely focused on stealth, and now he remained silent.

He was expecting the best assassin in the guild to immediately propose to hide the castle rather than camping out in plain sight as far away from danger as possible, but Raal voiced no disagreement with the guild leader.

Azul's proposal had its merits, but trading a known danger for the unknown could potentially multiply their problems. If things went well they would simply delay the issue, while if it went badly they could encounter dangers even greater than the deer dragon. There was also the problem that none in that room was adequate for underwater fights, making defending themselves and acquiring resources harder than it already was. Wasn't there a better idea?

Then, a solution crossed his mind.

"How about we move toward the dragon?"

All eyes went on him.

"If we move northeast then we will enter a mountainous region. We already are at the maximum elevation from the ground our guild base allows, but if we go toward the mountains or elevation compared to the sea will greatly increase."

Azul was staring at him, his expression both unreadable and unmoving. Abelkin's words lacked to cause any visible reaction in his friend.

"If we move over there we can reach the same height as the clouds. Then we can use [weather control] to conceal the castle and hide among them. We will be closer to the dragon, but it would be a calculated risk rather than a blind bet."

Izora nodded with decision.

"I like the idea. If we were to fight we wouldn't be too disadvantaged, on land we have more alternatives and higher mobility. We would be closer to resources we know how to obtain and we would have better information over the entirety of our surroundings."

Signs of approval came from his guild mates. Abelkin had managed to convince them to follow his idea.

"Very well."

The demon nodded in agreement.

"We will conceal our base in a cloud and head northeast, for the mountains."

He quickly looked at the other occupants of the room.

"I will now assign tasks to everyone. We will divide our responsibilities in order to improve our performance. Govan."

The wizard reacted to his name being mentioned by straightening his back.

"You will use magic to conceal the base. Use a [widened weather control] to surround the castle with fog until we reach a safe zone, then switch to a [widened cloud control] and maintain it; you should have enough mana to manage to do this."

The avian spell-caster nodded decisively in affirmation.

"You are also to check if the [rings of arch-wizardry] are in your room or not. Keep them ready in case problems were to rise. While you are at it, you should also tell the weavers to make several different maps as we discussed before. They are to prioritize the ones with [detect water] and [detect metal: gold] as a base. If we are lucky, this world has way more gold than our."

Govan nodded.

"I will. Anything else?"

"Yes."

The answer came almost immediately.

"Among us, you are the one that makes the most out of the magic system. You should try to study it as much as possible. Magic in this world is real, and we will need an expert on the matter."

"Of course."

The tengu answered with a voice filled with pride and confidence. Hadn't a beak replaced his lips he would now be displaying the largest smile they ever had the occasion to see.

"Leave it to me."

"We will all be counting on you. Next, Zaiho."

The metal covered man raised his head. The wrecked expression on his face had slowly being vanishing during the conversation, leaving behind a resigned one.

"You are the only crafter among us, as such you need to be able to master your skills as soon as possible. Build anything, doesn't matter how simple it is, just do it. After a couple of times show me at what level you are. If you can't bring yourself at all to craft anything, then find at least a way to repair what breaks. Make sure to only use worthless material for your first tests."

The man didn't answered, limiting himself to slowly nod hid head.

"One of the most important requirements for system self-sustainability is the ability to self repair. If you aren't able to repair anything when required, our overall ability to survive will be reduced. Do you understand?"

Zaiho nodded once more.

"Yes… I do."

His voice revealed just how close he was to a complete mental breakdown.

"Another thing. Among the NPCs, or servants as they call themselves, there are a few that posses crafting classes. Later you can go through the list of NPCs and select the ones you could need to carry out your duties."

Azul's voice softened a little as he offered support to their friend. Zaiho managed to show a faint and tired yet genuine smile.

"Thank you."

A smile appeared on the fiend's face.

"You are welcome. Izora."

Hearing her name being spoken, the cleric prepared herself to carefully store in her memory everything that was about to be said.

"You are in a similar situation as Zaiho. You are the only one among us able to heal others. We will be counting on you to heal any injury that could occur. Beside that, I would like if you could verify the loyalty and the way of thinking of the servants, as well as anything else that might be relevant; though, this task should be carried out by all of us to some extent."

She answered with a smile on her lips.

"I will speak with them."

"Very well. You should also pick the divine casters from the list and see how divine magic works over here."

She nodded once more with her head, accepting the task.

"Ayaki."

"Yes?"

The fox-girl answered in a calm manner, no more uncomfortable in the presence of the arch-demon.

"I would like you to also investigate the NPCs. As a bard you should be able to get any information from them with your charms. You should also focus on their way of thinking, as well as their loyalty. As Izora will be focusing on the ones within the temple, you should focus on the others."

The white kitsune slightly lowered her head in understanding.

Azul moved his attention toward his right, looking directly at the cape-covered assassin.

He opened his mouth, ready to give Raal his task, but those words never left his lips.

"If we are to live in this world, I think we should have a proper information network."

Abelkin could see the guild master blinking in confusion. Raal had unexpectedly spoken before he could say a word, and now Azul didn't know how to react.

"Whatever one is trying to do, the first step is to be well informed. Guild master, I believe that we need to know as much as possible about the outside world as quickly as we can. If one of us is outside gathering information directly from this world's inhabitants, we can prevent countless emergencies and obtain all manners of valuable intel. Though I admit it's dangerous, I wish to volunteer to create a team to monitor and observe the unknown. I believe my stealth abilities makes me the best candidate for the job, as being spotted would compromise us as a group."

Abelkin looked the fiend on the opposite side of the table unable to give an immediate answer.

Raal had gone off script shortly before being assigned his task, for then volunteering to form a group to gather information from the outside. There was a lot out of place in what just happened.

Aside for when he was directly asked, Raal had remained in silence the entirety of the meeting, neither commenting nor intervening in the conversation. And now he just interrupted Azul before he could speak.

Also, from a personal point of view, Raal never gave him the impression to be a self-sacrifice kind of guy. The only instances he spent real world money for the guild were the mandatory ones, and while playing he adamantly refused to take non-calculated risks. Now he was basically asking to go outside the safety of the guild base in an unknown world, to spy and steal information with dragons flying around the land for the sake of the group.

Unless he had somehow predicted Azul would give him a similar task and for some reasons decided to volunteer for it himself, there was no reason to even mention such dangerous job.

Abelkin couldn't come up with a reason that would push the calculative and cautious Raal to volunteer for such a genuinely dangerous mission. However, one thing was sure, Raal knew something he did not.

After ordering his thoughts, Azul finally gave his answer in a slightly wary tone.

"Yes, indeed. Create a intelligence gathering squad and bring us any relevant information you find."

Raal lowered his head in affirmation.

"It will be done. I guarantee you I will take the task seriously."

After he raised his head, he continued speaking following the short pause.

"Guild master, as secretly gathering information from the outside is a task that requires a rather large set of skills concentrated in as little individuals as possible, may I please pick the NPCs before the others do? It would be problematic if it turned out I needed someone that have already been assigned to someone else."

Azul sighed, then, showing the palm of his right hand, granted that request as well.

"Fine, if they are necessary for the intelligence network, you can pick anyone you want."

The pitch-black assassin lowered his head once more.

"Let's move on then."

The guild master turned his head to the other side, looking directly at Shen in the eyes.

The two gigantic players towered over everyone else in the room. Hadn't this world been one with magic and supernatural abilities, no one would have doubted the two of them together could have won against the other six occupants of the room without even breaking a sweat.

"Shen, first I would like you to verify if the last world item is safe, as well as carefully check if the black crystal ring has been damaged in any way."

He nodded without hesitation with a pleased smile on his face.

"Sure."

"Then I would also like to make you look for resources. If I remember correctly, we have natural sources of perfectly drinkable water within the castle; so our only preoccupations are food and gold. If we are fortunate, the gold will appear on the map after the weavers are done with their divinations; but food is different. You should go around the castle and see if there is anything we could eat. After Raal is done picking members for the intelligence network, get everyone with ranger levels and similar classes, as well as any other servant with good mobility, and generate a food income. Just remember we still know very little about the outside world, and it has been proved there are serious dangers, so remember to bring with you people skilled in a fight."

He nodded to show understanding.

"Another thing. You will be the most likely to enter a fight against monsters and other opponents. Try to verify which systems are still active and if they changed. The most important one to verify would be the game system that rewarded us with gold and items when we killed enemies. It would be great if it was still on."

Shen's smile turned almost cocky.

"Oh, I will."

Azul shifted his weight on the throne, assuming a more comfortable position.

"Very well. Now you have all been assigned a task. Abelkin and I will coordinate everyone's activities and take care of the overall management, as well as defending the castle should an emergency arise. The constant sharing of information will be a crucial factor to our survival, as such, until things have calmed down, we should have daily meetings. Do we agree?"

The demon looked once more at his right, where the shadow-melded assassin was sitting.

"I should be able to attend, distance is not a problem. As long as I know when the meeting is, I will be there."

"Good."

The demon continued speaking, concluding the meeting by giving the last directives to the other guild-mates.

"Also, we should all experiment with our abilities; practice with them so that we will be ready to face any situation. Identify possible differences with their game counterparts and create ways to work around them if you find some. You all should also go in the vault and see if our comrades have left behind anything we could use to strengthen ourselves; remember that there is no way to know what we might need, so prepare for everything."

Azul rose from his throne, his colossal body dwarfing everyone else in the room. He began to walk toward the room's exit with slow and heavy steps, marking the end of the meeting.

"One last thing."

Abelkin and the others had already begun to rise as well, but they were interrupted halfway through by the guild leader's conclusive words.

"I have already given this task to Ayaki and Izora, but you all should personally verify the loyalty of the servants that are following you."

As the arch-demon approached the exit, the massive door slowly begun to open.

"It would be problematic if we had to constantly watch our backs."

As Azul left the room, Abelkin could hear the sound of the several servants waiting outside kneeling behind him.

He looked at the other guild members, some of which were left with an uncomfortable expression on their faces after that final remark.

He rose from the throne, and saw others following his example. He headed toward the still opened door, leaving the thrones room to start carrying out his tasks.

Once he had crossed the door, he turned back to make sure no one remained behind.

Ayaki and Izora crossed the door walking side by side, followed by Shen close behind them. Zaiho left the room producing a metallic sound with his every step; still spiritually taxed, but apparently better than when he entered. The last to cross the door was Govan, whose decreased body size caused a slower pace.

Abelkin looked inside the room, searching for the last guild-mate that took part to the meeting.

Raal's throne was empty. His keen eyes, backed by several detection skills, couldn't locate anyone in the room.

The door closed, and in the thrones room returned the silence.


	5. Chapter 5: Entity

Chapter 5: Entity

 _Countless withered trees emerged from the thick mist covering the ground, their twisted branches forming a ceiling over her. As she ran past them, she could hear the indistinct calls of unknown creatures reacting to her presence._

 _She sank in the mist with every step she took; she was panting heavily and her lungs felt on fire. Her legs hurt so terribly she was crying, but what she felt was nothing compared to what was behind her could do._

 _The lacerated skirt was hindering her movements, while the large necklace she was wearing kept banging on her chest at every step. Tears were flowing down her face, and her ice blue eyes reflected the sheer terror she was feeling._

 _Exerting herself to the fullest, she kept running through the woods with only a bluish diffused light to show the way. The trees were becoming scarcer, and in the far distance she saw the end of the forest._

 _She couldn't dare to look behind and check if the pursuer was still following her. She was certain to be chased and she knew that if she looked at that once more she would completely loose all her will to flee. She could only use whatever energy she had left and escape the woods before being caught._

 _The uneven terrain, filled with sharp rocks and covered by inscrutable mist, caused her to stumble over and over as she covered the remaining distance. The branches kept scratching her body as she passed by them, turning every step separating her from salvation in a glimpse of hell._

 _With only meters separating her from freedom and her body exhausting even the strength found in desperation, her foot sunk deep into the mist._

 _She instinctively raised her hands to protect the face as she fell. The sharp rocks pierced deeply, as if the ground was covered in broken glasses. Her ankle hurt more than anything else in her body, but even before she could verify whether it was broken or not, a swarm violently left the burrow with so much force to send her flying away._

 _She fell on her back not too far away, with something hard piercing her shoulder. The swarm was still flying out of the nest; the potent noise of those countless monstrosities was hurting her ears as they scattered across the forest._

 _She rolled. She crawled. She limped._

 _She was covered in sweat, dirt and blood. With pieces of rock stuck in her body, her foot bent in an unnatural angle and eyes blurred by tears, she slowly reached the end of the forest._

 _After the last tree scratched her skin, she stopped to observe what was in front of her as blood was slowly spilling out of her countless wounds._

 _For as far as her eyes could see, in every direction she could go, there were mist and nothingness. Just a step in front of her, the forest's mist fell down from a cliff into the void. A cascade falling for eternity was all that awaited those leaving the woods._

 _She didn't move. She hadn't the strength to. She lacked the will necessary to even despair. The only reaction she could have was a silent wept._

 _Suddenly, just when the last remains of her strength were about to leave her body, a woman's arm embraced her from behind. She felt her body leaning against a human figure; in a motherly manner, the one gently hugging her carefully removed the tears from her face with the thumb. One hand then moved to her hairs, gently brushing them with the palm._

 _As she was being lovingly cuddled from behind, she lacked the strength to do anything. They remained one step from the brink of nothingness in absolute silence; one hugging the other the same way a mother would her child._

 _The otherworldly silence continued as the woman kept brushing her hairs. Both hands were covered in dark gloves, with all fingers but the thumbs adorned by silvery rings extending forward like talons. Her sleeves were long, almost reaching the ground. She even felt something soft and comfortable on her back. It was an embrace one could lose into._

 _When the one hugging her stopped brushing her hairs, the hands joined over her chest completing the embrace. She then leaned the head on her shoulder and remained there immobile._

 _Before long, the unnatural silence enveloping them came to an end._

 _"Why are you running from us?"_

 _The voice lacked any emotion. It seemed to come directly from within her head rather than from any direction._

 _As she heard those words, tears flowed down her cheeks only for the woman to once more gently remove them with her thumb._

 _"Are you afraid?"_

 _She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. Fear was all she had left._

 _"Do not be. We would not ever cause harm… Not to you."_

 _Her vision was steadily growing darker as blood kept leaking out of her body; her mind was going blank. She couldn't feel her limbs anymore and her eyes were slowly closing._

 _"We are your allies. Heed us in the wars to come, spread our word with devotion."_

 _As her eyes closed and consciousness left her body, she heard the women's last words clearly in her mind._

 _"Have faith in us, for as long as faith guides your actions, you shall never know defeat."_

* * *

She opened her eyes. Her vision was filled by the extremely elaborate work of art everyone insisted was her bed's head, a masterpiece decorated with more gold than she could have bought in a lifetime of work.

She turned her head to face a side of the suite. Gold, silver, crystal, ivory… no idea what that red thing was made of but if it was there it was probably expensive. Three days ago she worked part-time to afford university, now just the bed she was sleeping on was worth more than a year of rent.

She listened to the rain outside her windows for a long moment, slowly gathering the willpower to leave her heaven of feathers and silk. She then reluctantly cast aside the warm blanket and felt cold shivers running down her spine as the slightly colder air suddenly made direct contact with her skin.

She ran behind the dressing screen, moving quickly to reduce as much as possible the contact between her bare feet and the cold marble floor.

Illuminated only by the faint light passing through both clouds and windows, she grabbed a long dress hastily thrown on a chair. After overcoming a few difficulties due to getting dressed in the dark, she begun to wear her jewels, light armor and other items either placed on a small table or straight out randomly left on the floor.

Then, from the other side of the dressing screen, she heard something moving in her bed. It called to her with a light tone.

"…Lady Izora?"

She blushed as memories from the previous night were evoked to her mind. Failing at controlling the tonality of her answer, she responded with an unusually high-pitched voice.

"I'm here. Just give me a second."

Feeling her face turning an even deeper tonality of red, she continued to equip all the items scattered around her.

After finally managing to find her last ring behind one leg of the chair, she stepped outside of the area covered by the dressing screen.

Standing in front of her was a beautiful men just a couple of years older than her, with perfectly groomed short blond hair, deep blue eyes and a smile capable of stealing any woman's heart.

There wasn't a hint of tiredness on his face; on the contrary, he was both perfectly awake and well rested. With his back straight and a ready expression on his face, Izora couldn't help but wonder about what she must have looked like in comparison.

She noticed he was wearing his shining golden full-plate armor, a wrinkleless white cape on his back and a one-handed sword to his side. How he managed to wear all that in a few seconds while she struggled to put on a dress was beyond her ability to comprehend.

As she saw that the other person that spent the night in the room was awake as well, a timid smile appeared on her face. She then raised her hands in front of her and attempted to clap them twice as gracefully as possible.

In response to the previously coded command all the lights in the room switched on, revealing just how massive the suite they were in actually was.

As Izora looked back at the man in full-plate armor, she realized he was staring seriously at her. Unsure of what might have caused this reaction, her mind immediately went once more to the previous night. Was it something she had done? Something she had said? Or something she hadn't said?

As she was unable to find either a cause for his stare or a way to make it end, the white caped man tenderly smiled at her. Even as he was walking toward her, Izora found herself unable to think of anything aside his beautiful smile.

Once they were one half a meter from the other, he raised his hands and moved them behind her neck. Izora felt her body temperature rising quickly and cursed herself for swallowing so loudly. Her mind was going completely blank and she had no idea what to do.

Then, he removed her necklace, flipped it on the other side and put it back around her neck, facing the right way.

"Lady Izora, do you wish me to call some attendants before breakfast?"

After finally processing what had just happened, she forced her gaze to leave his perfect smile and meet his eyes. Then, she answered with a genuine smile on her face.

"Please do."

* * *

As the blade completed its ark, blood gushed out of the creature. It crawled for a few meters, agonizing on the floor and roaring weakly. After it fell, Izora could see it was still breathing. She moved her hand toward it, the palm facing toward the wound, and she pronounced the incantation.

"[Pillar of life]."

A column of positive energy fell from above, completely enveloping the creature on the floor. Its radiance was so powerful that it brightened the entirety of the room to the point it was hard to look at it without closing the eyes.

The near-deadly wound closed with unnatural speed, completely disappearing from the creature's body as if it had never been inflicted in the first place.

Once the pillar of life vanished, the creature stood once more. She saw the fear in its amber eyes; it trembled and kept moving in circles looking for an exit, a beast caged in the depths of despair.

Izora looked in a corner of the room. Standing silently over there, with the head lowered in deference, was a human figure wrapped in dark clothes similar to the ones she was wearing.

The moment her eyes rested on him, the individual raised his hand in a similar way as she had done a moment earlier.

"[Bestow curse: seven plagues]."

His hand was wrapped in a greenish light as the spell begun to affect its target.

The creature's veins turned black and it begun to vomit unnaturally dark blood. As it fell once more on the floor in convulsions and spasm, disgusting yellow pus begun to flow out of large black buboes all over its body. Its fur quickly begun to fall of, quickly followed by the skin. Cracks appeared over its horns and fangs, breaking them into countless shreds.

The creature screamed in pain, its eyes made contact with hers.

Izora felt like throwing up at the sight of its exposed muscles.

She raised her hand once more, and once more she spoke a fitting incantation.

"[Heal]."

Her hand was enveloped in light, and the creature suffering in front of her was covered in extremely intense positive energy. For a brief moment, everything the occupants of the room could see was the creature's outline filled with blinding light.

The spell swiftly removed all low-end afflictions, while at the same time healing a considerable amount of damage. Once the spell was over, the creature was once more as it had been before, with no wounds, curses or symptoms of affliction.

Izora looked at it. It wasn't standing or moving. It was still breathing, but it had no more will to live.

"Jehoel."

As she called for him with an emotionless voice, the white-caped man standing beside her formally answered her call.

"My lady."

His lips were forming the same beautiful smile he had in the morning, but she couldn't bring herself to appreciate it under those circumstances.

"We have been doing this for hours. I wish to take a break."

The man placed a hand on his chest and bowed to show understanding.

"Shall we leave the creature here until your return?"

She looked at it one last time, large and powerful, yet unmoving and broken. Its body was still alive, but the spirit was utterly shattered.

"No." she answered. "Dispose of it."

As those words left her lips, Jehoel drew his sword while approaching the creature. In a single fluid motion, with surgical precision, his blade pierced the body until the blade's point reached the heart. Izora couldn't find a hint of hesitation in his movements, nor regret on his face.

The beast stopped breathing the very moment the blade pierced its body. Its suffering had come to an end in the same way as its predecessors.

As if waiting for that moment, several servants stationed just outside the door entered the room. Two of them, white capes, went toward the creature's corpse and begun to wrap it into a large blood-stained cloth; the others, half a dozen castle maids, started to clean what was left of the beast off the floor. The familiar scene was painful to watch to the point her head was spinning.

Incapable to remain in the room any further, she turned toward the still opened door and left.

Walking down the hallway, she heard the sound of steps following her closely. She didn't need to turn to know Jehoel was the one accompanying her.

Ever since her arrival in the new world, she kept practicing divine magic on a daily basis. Just like the other magic casters among her friends, she needed to try all her spells to verify if they were still usable. She told the NPCs they were doing it to verify if the new world affected magic in some way, but they would have probably helped her even if she hadn't explained.

As a cleric she was focused on support, over half of her spells were to be cast on allies; this however meant that for every healing spell she tested someone had to get wounded.

After having spent some time in the new world they had managed to find more powerful monsters than the beasts they had first encountered, so they captured some of those to experiment on. The tests were proceeding smoothly, but it meant that she had to spend many hours every day hurting and healing those creatures until they broke. The first night she didn't even managed to sleep, and ever since then she had kept having nightmares.

They kept walking through the hallways until they reached a large room. To the opposite side there was a massive door, easily as impressive as the one leading to the thrones room. It was over ten meters high, made of dark wood and reinforced with gold-like supports. Engraved in it there were seven intimidating figures, some depicting somewhat humane individuals while others representing horrendous beasts, sculpted so that they would watch over everyone in the room.

As they drew closer, the white capes standing at the sides begun to operate with the door's mechanism. The passage slowly opened, and a spectacular sight welcomed them as they entered.

An extremely long room extended in front of them, paired with an unbelievably tall ceiling. Across the entirety of its length, innumerable luxurious seats were aligned in rows all facing the same direction. Arcs and columns sustained the vaulted ceiling, from which many immense enchanted chandeliers spread light through the room. On the other end of the room was a fresco as wide as the wall itself; depicting divine scenes of deities and demons battling each other. Although it was already a priceless masterpiece, precious metals and gems further enhanced its beauty.

Izora had visited the temple many times ever since being dragged into the new world, and every time she felt dwarfed by it.

She proceeded to the opposite side of the room, toward the point all seats were arranged to face. Positioned there, over a large marble altar whose beauty wasn't overshadowed by anything else she had seen that day, there were seven small statues aliened in a straight line.

Once the two of them finally crossed the interminable distance between the door and the altar, she stared at the effigies in silence.

She didn't remain absorbed in her thoughts for too long before the only other occupant of the room broke the silence.

"Has it happened again?"

Izora's attention shifted toward Jeohel.

He was looking at her, hints of concern over his face. He waited politely for a respond, trying not to pressure her in answering and ready to drop the subject any moment. The care he treated her with made Izora want to open to him, to remove the weight off her chest.

She nodded, almost imperceptibly.

"Which was it?"

She looked back at the seven divine effigies on the altar, each representing a god the class [Living pantheon] allowed her to worship.

She extended her arm toward the third from the left. It depicted a robed woman, with an impassive and expressionless face bracketed by an imposing mantle of sharpened blades.

"… The lady of pain."

There were both fear and reverence behind his words. In Yggdrasil every player was asked to select a deity to worship at the beginning of the game; unless one learned how to use divine magic there was no apparent weight behind that choice, but there were some rare skills and items that counted the worship of specific deities in their requirements. For this reason, every player and NPC in their guild worshiped one of the seven deities represented on the altar.

Even thought Jeohel wasn't himself a worshiper of the lady of pain, he still respected the choice many other inhabitants of the flying castle made, but feared what she represented.

"Has she done anything to you?"

Memories from the nightmare flooded her mind. The fear and the pain she felt, the desperation and the fatigue constantly growing, the emotionless conversation in front of the absolute nothingness.

"… She spoke to me."

He waited for Izora to continue, looking at her with absolute seriousness as she discussed bad dreams. She felt stupid for giving them so much weight, but recently the line between what she should and shouldn't worry about had become quite blurry.

"She told me to heed them in the wars to come, to spread their word. That as long as I have faith I won't be defeated."

Jeohel face was so serious she felt almost scared of him. He averted his eyes and studied the lady of pain's effigy. His eyes were locked on it, but she realized he was thinking of something else. Unsure about how to approach him, she waited for him to break the silence.

"Has she told you what the wars are? Whom will we be fighting against?"

The sudden questions and the extremely serious attitude were unlike anything she had come to know of him in the last few days.

"No… Just what I told you."

She looked at him with uneasy eyes. That discussion had continued for far too long.

"Jeohel, this was only a bad dream. The last few days have been very hard for me, and now I'm just getting impressed. There's nothing to worry about."

After failing to convince either of them, they both dropped the subject and let silence envelop the room.

For several minutes, the only sounds they could hear were the rain falling on the windows and their own breaths. Uncomfortable with the silence yet unable to say anything more, Izora stared at the small statues on the altar and thought about those words.

After quickly reaching the limit of her endurance, she turned and looked at Jeohel.

"What do you…"

Those words died in her mouth when a familiar sound echoed throughout the temple. Her eyes immediately went to her belt, where one of the items hanging from it was now covered in a faint light.

She grabbed the medallion and placed it in front of her. She instinctively looked at Jeohel before accepting the communication. Nightmares, deities and magic experiments were becoming harmful to her self-confidence.

The light moved to form a humanoid shape over the medallion. It was covered in a cloak and wore an expressionless mask, voided of all facial features.

Ever since all this started she had seen that figure only a couple of times, and always during the mandatory meetings the guild leader was organizing on a daily basis.

"Raal. It has been a while since we last spoke."

The cloaked assassin nodded slightly at those words.

"Indeed. Do you have anything important to do tonight?"

Baffled by the sudden question she instinctively glimpsed once more at Jeohel, who failed to completely conceal his confusion.

"No. My last appointment is the daily meeting with you and the others. After that I'm free."

The figure on the medallion nodded once more.

"Very well then. Would you go out with me tonight?"

The words echoed in the temple, followed by absolute silence. By the time the priestess managed to process the meaning of that sentence, she gave voice to the thoughts that had formed in her mind.

"Ehhhhh?"

* * *

One could truly appreciate the beauty of the plain only from a high location, where on clear days you could see the fields coloured by the many different crops for miles. Looking at the sunset outside the window was one of his favourite moments of the day. No matter how bad he felt; the magnificent sight of the warm light caressing the fields always gave him a moment of peace.

He sighted at the beauty of the spectacle in front of him, one of the very few things that gave him relief in the last months. The few minutes it took for the sun to disappear behind the horizon were spent in religious silence.

Once it was gone, he moved away from the window. On the other side of the room, a man was waiting for him. He was in the middle of his twenties, young and strong. He carried a sword at his side and had the robust built to use it. His face was serious and disciplined; yet the most perceptive would be able to notice hints of concern in his eyes.

"I'll be going."

At those words, the man opened the door for him.

He looked one more time outside his window, trying to engrave in his heart the sight he so much cherished; the two of them then left the room.

Their destination was just a floor below, but to him it felt like an interminable distance.

A few months ago, in circumstances beyond anyone's ability to comprehend, an unknown and deadly condition appeared within the city's walls. The alchemists had long debated its nature, with some believing it to be the poisonous bite of a small monster while others claiming it to be a parasitic mushroom. For him it made no difference either way, the only thing that mattered was that it had infected his son.

In his life he had his fair share of misfortune. A famine that lasted two years, the death of his parents, his brother falling in battle when the city was besieged by monsters and he inheriting the title when he was way too young and inexperienced to keep up the family name; but he had always managed to limit the damages through effort and willpower, keeping both the family and the city afloat.

This time however, nothing of what he tried to do could solve the situation. Alchemists, herbalists and every manner of sage agreed on one point, no method that could be found in the dragon lord of wilderness' territory could save him.

If his son were to die, it would all be over. The family name he had devoted his entire life keeping alive would end with him. If it was impossible to save his son within the dragon lord's territory, then the only choice was to reach beyond its borders.

In an agricultural city such as Ulovale, several nobles maintained their wealth through large fields cultivated by slaves; connections with slave traders were not only useful but also necessary to maintain one's status. He had contacted one of his oldest trading partners and made him follow the rumours of the theocracy's clerics. If no cure existed in the land of the dragon, he would find it in the land of the gods.

The expedition was a complete failure. Traveling into the territory of other dragon lords was never an easy task, but the theocracy's magicians were far tougher than the slavers could have ever expected. When he discovered half of the slave traders had died he thought it was over, but then the remaining half returned to Ulovale and he was overjoyed to discover they managed to capture a cleric.

Back then, all he would have expected but what happened next. Their leader died during the expedition, and the new one had more interest in profit than in respecting the agreement made by the recently deceased one.

They refused to even listen to his private offer and decided to auction the cleric off in the streets, so that the entire city could compete for it.

At the auction he offered everything his family could afford, but he still lost. The governor had greatly outbid him, forever ruining with a single move one the most important families opposing him. The end of lord Gerber el Nehim and the Nehim lineage was bought on the street.

In the end, no amount of effort can stop sheer bad luck. When opposed by destiny, what can a man do?

Gerber and the guard accompanying him came to a halt once they reached a wooden door. It was fairly plain, with no decoration worthy of being mentioned, but one thing greatly differentiated it from the others; eight white crosses had been drawn with chalk on it.

He spent one moment to look at the two rows of marks he drew some hours ago, just doing so made him feel fear surging within him.

After he lost the auction a few days ago, he immediately began to prepare another expedition. It took the slavers roughly twenty days to bring a cleric back; if his son could manage to survive that long then there could have still been a chance. But after the news of the losses sustained during the first expedition spread, not even mercenary companies dared to cross the theocracy's borders.

Just when he had run out of options and was a step away from giving up, the presence spoke to him.

Just thinking about it made him tremble in fear. An amalgamation of darkness leaking from his shadow had appeared in one of the city's securest locations and assumed human form in front of him. No matter how loudly he screamed, the guards standing just a couple of steps from him had not even turned they heads. It was only when confusion and fear reached their absolute peaks that the presence spoke.

His words were clear and left no room for interpretation. "Serve me, and your son will live."

The sheer terror he felt that very morning made him unable to give any comprehensible answer; thinking back about it, that had probably been his salvation.

"You have until dusk to accept. If you do, draw eight crosses on your son's door."

Following those cold words, the presence had vanished into nothingness as if it had never existed. The guards swore nothing had happened with so much certainty he doubted his senses, but the white chalk left on his desk was an undisputable proof that what had happened was as real as he had felt it.

Steeling his resolve, he opened the faintly squeaking eight-crossed door and entered his son's bedroom.

It was a fairly large room, though nearly empty. The only pieces of furniture were his son's bed and a couple of chairs beside it. The windows had remained closed ever since his son first showed symptoms, with thick curtains to keep out natural light; the alchemists had advised against outside activities and exposure to the sun.

Once he entered, the occupants of the chamber shifted their attention toward him. They all bowed in deference to the head of one among the most respectable and ancient families in Ulovale.

However, though three guards and two attendants were already paying their respects, two individuals had yet to lower their heads. One was his wife, occupying one of the chairs beside the bed, and the other was his son.

He looked at him sleeping in his bed. He was barely in his teens; his skin was as pale as the sheets he was under. His face was sickly emaciated; ever since this tragedy struck, he didn't remember having seen his son moving from the position he was in. He was weak and frail, just touching him could cause him pain. The hardest thing for him to look at was the black stain crawling on his neck; only the previous week it was circumscribed to the torso, now it was already making its way to the head.

The house's future rested on an alliance with another one, and his son was destined to become the seal of their union. If he lived, he would marry the heir of one of the city's most influential families, marking the beginning of an era of prosperity and stability for the Nehim. If he died, their family would end with him, and their names would never be spoken again. If the presence were able to save him, he would pay any price.

Of the nine people currently in the room, he was the only one knowing what was about to happen. He hadn't told anyone; and even if he had, no one would have believed him. The guards he questioned immediately after the presence's visit dismissed his behaviour as the consequence of all the stress and fatigue he had accumulated recently, while the crosses on his son's door caused him to earn several pitiful stares. Hadn't it been for the chalk he kept in his pocket, he himself would have thought to be going insane.

He walked toward his wife, sitting by their son's bed. She was looking at him with tired eyes; ever since this tragedy struck, she had been aging visibly every day. Her hairs had lost the intense brown colour that had earned her countless praises in the past, long deep wrinkles covered her face in a testament to countless sleepless nights and her eyes were red for all the tears she had wept.

Personally, he wasn't doing any better. The unshaved beard gave him a shabby look, and every time he looked at himself in the mirror his blond hairs were closer to becoming completely white. For a couple in their late thirties, any onlooker would now swear them to be over fifty.

He sat next to her, occupying the only other chair in the room. They remained like that for a while, both looking at their son in silence.

"Will he live?"

He looked at her. He couldn't read her in that state; she seemed to have already realized there was no hope for their son.

"Alise…"

"Tell me!"

He was startled by his wife's sudden scream. Everyone else in the room looked at her, their faces all filled with concern.

"Ilward could die any moment and there is nothing we can do about it."

After Alise said those words, she turned back to look at their son. She would have wept if she had tears left.

"Please. Tell me…"

He didn't know what to say. Telling her Ilward will live would destroy her when he died, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her their only son was destined to an untimely demise.

He put his hand on her shoulder, trying his best to give her strength.

"Alise, you need to…"

He interrupted himself halfway through the sentence and looked at his wife.

She was perfectly still. Though she was breathing normally and she blinked at fairly regular intervals, she was staring in front of her while remaining as immobile as a living person could.

He turned toward the other occupants of the room. They all were in the same condition, the guards looking at nothing and the attendants motionless.

He instinctively looked at the closed window, but he had no way to see how bright was outside. He could only assume the last rays of the sun had now vanished as well. He knew what was about to happen next.

Thump, thump, thump.

An abrupt sound came from the door. Someone had just knocked.

His wife's face was unfazed; she remained immobile in the position she was before. The guards and the attendants also lacked to react to the sound, keeping their positions as if nothing had happened.

Thump, thump, thump.

For the second time, someone knocked at the door.

He seemed to be the only one in the room able to notice the sound. Unsure on how to react, he concluded that the presence shouldn't be kept waiting.

"Come in."

After he spoke, the door's handle moved. Even as the door slowly begun to open, no one seemed to perceive either the words he just said or the one entering the room.

Passing through the door was the presence. It was human in shape, and in shape only. He moved without producing any form of sound, not even the door had creaked while opening; his every action, even the simple act of slowly walking in a straight line, was unnaturally fluid. Looking at him was extremely difficult; his eyes couldn't focus on his figure for more than a couple of seconds, and whenever he blinked he seemed to vanish. It was wearing a cloak of pure darkness, he couldn't tell where it ended and where the shadow begun. On his face there was an empty white mask, lacking all features a visage would have.

Beholding the presence awoke once more fear in his soul, fear born from being in front of a completely inscrutable existence he couldn't even come close to comprehend; but his fear increased even further as he realized another fact. The presence wasn't alone.

Following it close behind was another figure. It had a feminine physique, thin and well proportioned. She was wearing a blood-red cloak covering the entirety of her body; with jewels far more beautiful than anything he had ever seen in his entire life. Unlike the presence she wasn't wearing a mask, but she kept her hood so low that it was impossible to see her face. In her right hand she held a long sceptre, decorated by many priceless gems and ending in seven symbols he could not recognize. In spite of his limited knowledge on the subject, he managed to recognize her as a wielder of divine power, a cleric.

If the presence was an inscrutable vortex of shadows and darkness that stroke fear and despair on everyone who could glimpse his figure, the woman was an incarnation of righteousness and nobility inspiring respect and devotion on all those who laid their eyes on her.

Standing in the presence of two existences beyond his comprehension, all he could do was to wait in silence for those superior beings to speak first.

"I take you have accepted the offer?"

The presence spoke to him with words voided of all emotions.

He had been thinking incessantly about it from the very moment he fist encountered the presence. Of all the paths his life could take, the only one not destroying his family was the one where he walked followed by the shadow.

He lowered his head to the two existences in front of him. In all his life, that was the first time he bowed to someone. If deference were the only thing that could save his family, deference he would choose.

"Save my son, and I will do everything you ask me."

The red-hooded figure moved her head to look at the presence, and then he answered.

"Very well."

At those words, the woman went toward his son's side. Alise, on the opposite side of the bed, didn't moved even as the unknown individual approached her son.

The woman spent a long moment looking at Ilward. For a second, Gerber's mind was crossed by a horrible thought. What if she wasn't able to heal his son? What if his condition was so advanced that he was beyond saving?

Terrorized by uncertainty in the final moments before discovering the fate of his family, he could do nothing but pray. He had never seen a god, only a couple of years before he didn't even knew what a god was, but he prayed.

In the territory he had lived his entire life, the dragon lord was the mightiest being who lived; humans offered him food and gold, and he allowed them to live in his land. But in the Slane theocracy were the gods the ones who ruled over everything, and in return for their power they only asked prayers. He had found it hard to believe someone would give so much for so little, but now that little was all he could give; and so he prayed to the god who was going to save his son.

The girl slowly moved one hand toward Ilward, in the dark of the room it almost seemed she was trembling.

With her next words, she turned the impossible into a reality.

"[Bestow blessing: Overwhelming vitality]."

Following the brief incantation, the power of the gods begun to flow through her body to her palm. Her hand was enveloped in an intense greenish light, so pure that for a brief moment it cast away the darkness of the room. Then, the light enveloped his son, covering him like a cocoon.

Shortly after, everything returned to normal. The cleric's hand was no longer enveloped in light, and the one covering his son had disappeared as well.

He looked at Ilward. His son's face was calm, but the large stain on his body hadn't disappeared.

"Your son is now under the effect of a spell."

He looked at the presence.

"It will cure him faster than any existing medicine, but still slowly enough to not arise suspicion."

Gerber looked at his son. Now that he was looking closer, colour already seemed to be returning to his face.

The woman in red moved three steps toward him.

"Rejoice. Your son will be cured by the time the sun rises."

Her words were… warm. He could sense the joy she was feeling simply through what she said. The contrast between the life bringer and the presence was as great as day and night.

He looked at his son, closed his eyes, gathered all the courage he could muster and faced the presence with his lead lowered.

"My son is saved. What do you wish me to do?"

The presence didn't answered immediately. It let some moments pass, moments in which he felt all his courage vanishing away. Then, it answered.

"Keep behaving the way you did. Refrain from doing anything suspicious. You will receive instructions after your son is fully cured."

Gerber raised his head, confusion on his face. Yet, the presence was no longer there. He immediately looked behind, and the life bringer was gone as well.

"Stay by your son's side tonight, be the first he sees when he open his eyes."

Though he couldn't see her, those kind words still reached him.

He looked once more at his son. With hope finally in his heart, he sat back on the chair and remained at his side.

"… Will he live?"

Those words marked the end of the unnatural silence that had arrived with the presence. He looked at his wife, oblivious of what had just happened in that room. With the first genuine smile of the last few months, he put his hand on her shoulder and answered the question she begun five minutes earlier.

"Yes."

Maybe she wasn't expecting the confidence behind his words, maybe she noticed the dramatic shift in his attitude, but she looked at him in the eyes and studied him.

"How can you be sure?"

Confusion and doubt were on her face, yet she didn't call him a liar. The faith backing his words had gotten through her months of desperation.

"I just know."

It was a weak answer, but she remained in silence. Alise kept studying him, trying to understand what made him change his attitude so much. In the end, her next words were equally simple.

"What should we do now?"

He sat beside her and caressed his son's hairs.

"We stay by his side and wait for him to open his eyes."

* * *

The two of them remained in silence at each other's side as they looked at the night sky. The sea of stars above them was a spectacle to be treasured in one's heart, something they couldn't have ever experienced had they remained in their world.

Standing on the city's highest roof, Izora looked at the fairy-tale-like location. The wooden windows were closing one after the other, leaving barely any light left in the streets. A few people were hasting to reach their homes, while small groups of guard patrolled the area with lanterns in their hands.

Tightening the grip on her sceptre, she looked at the one standing beside her. Even tough there was no way to see where he was looking at while he wore the mask, she was certain his eyes were on the sky.

Thankfully, he spoke before the silence could go on for too long.

"You saved his life, you should be proud."

Her lips formed a faint smile. She lowered the hood, finally showing her face once more.

"Thank you. I am glad I was able to save a life."

However, the smile on her face quickly vanished.

"But will he be alright?"

Raal's head moved away from the stars to face her.

"That child had been poisoned. The spell has already removed all traces, but I'm afraid whoever did it will try again."

Raal slowly walked a couple of steps away from the roof's border.

"I know."

There was no way he didn't. She had seen him use poison in every fight she managed to observe him, even low-levelled rogues would be able to discern if a status was caused by poison or other sources. It was also only natural for the poisoner to try again once he realized the first attempt had failed.

"Don't worry, I have already looked into it. The situation is already under control."

She allowed herself to take a sight of relief.

"Thank you."

Right after she uttered those words, a sound of large flapping wings came from above. When she raised her head in that direction, she saw an angel clad in golden full-plate armor flying toward them on pure white wings.

"I see your escort has arrived."

Izora looked at the assassin standing behind her.

"The concealment effect will wear down in about four minutes. Try to get outside the city by then."

With those words, a thick mantle of shadows enveloped Raal. When it dissipated immediately after, the assassin was nowhere to be seen.

Before she had time to ponder over how fast travel skills and teleportation effects were deeply tied to his playing style, Jehoel swiftly landed a couple of meters from her.

She couldn't help but to look around to check if anyone was there. Even though Raal had used the same concealment ability on him when he insisted in accompanying them, the sight of a flying angel wearing golden heavy armor was something that on an instinctive level was hard to ignore.

While she verified no one had noticed, Jehoel closed the few meters separating them walking with unusual speed.

"Lady Izora, are you hurt?"

His eyes moved quickly, searching her body for wounds or anything that could have harmed her.

She tried to reassure him with a calm voice.

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

Even if her role in a battle was primarily support, she was still a combatant. Each deity granted its worshiping divine casters benefits related to their domain; hence her [Living pantheon]'s ability to worship multiple gods was considered nearly unfair for the stacking benefits. Among the seven of them there were effects that made her immune to most debuffs. It was a sad supporter one who fell victim to the statuses he was tasked to remove.

"You see, Jehoel, I understood something today."

The paladin's full attention was on her. He had the expression of a student about to hear a life-changing lesson. However, now Izora felt that attitude wasn't completely out of place.

"We are here for a reason. We have these powers for a reason. We have a purpose."

She looked at the angel.

"Obtaining ultimate knowledge?" He guessed unsure of his own answer.

She smiled at him; then she turned her eyes back at the night sky.

"You don't understand, but it's fine even if you don't. Just know that whoever we will be fighting in the wars to come, I will protect both my comrades and the innocents of this world."

After uttering such declaration, she heard a metallic sound behind her.

Once she turned, she saw her angel kneeling before her.

"My lady, allow this servant of yours the honour to forever be by your side and protect you for all eternity."

She looked at him, kneeling like a knight would kneel to his queen.

She then walked toward him and, with a warm smile on her lips, softly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It would be my honour to spend the rest of my life with you."

* * *

As the two of them rapidly flew toward the flying castle one in the arms of the other, no other person was left on the roof.

Then, a crow in a nest way too small for him moved his head toward their direction. He cawed, and flew toward the next destination indicated by his master.


	6. Chapter 6: Force

Chapter 6: Force

"Welcome, oh mighty dragon lord."

The monster slowly flew toward them, his immense body casting a shadow over everyone present.

"We are honored you have chosen to visit us in this humble city whose creation you allowed. Please, accept this gift as a token of our everlasting gratitude to your immense self."

The dragon landed in the middle of the square while barely paying any attention to the man repeating his ritual greeting for the umpteenth time. Without even waiting for him to finish his speech, the dragon launched himself at the large pile prepared in front of him and swallowed staggering quantities of food with every bite.

The people surrounding him silently watched the fire-breather quickly devour the small mountain that could have fed them all for months, while the governor continued to thank him for his generosity.

Meanwhile, inside a dark room currently supposed to be empty from which was possible to see the scene, two figures were looking at the fire-breathing monster outside the window with unparalleled attention.

One was wearing a cloak so dark it seemed to be made of pure blackness. A featureless white mask concealed his face, while a silver crown with a dark gem mounted in it adorned the top. The other was wearing tight black clothes, maximizing mobility while blending in the surroundings. His mask was dark, tapered at the bottom so that it resembled a stylized long beak. Below his hood it was possible to glimpse short gray hairs and milk-white skin.

They both appeared to be humans, but it was quite far from the truth.

Without taking his eyes away from the dragon, the one wrapped in the cloak of darkness addressed the other.

"What do you think?"

He kept looking at the deer-like creature, searching for meaningful information. After taking some seconds to order his thoughts, he answered with the most accurate analysis he was capable of.

"Lord Raal, the target is currently the greatest known threat we have encountered. He is able to best any inhabitant of the castle in single combat with strength alone and we are not yet certain of the full extent of his powers."

His lord didn't react to those words. He wasn't the first that question had been asked to, his answer must had been too similar to the other's. Understanding what he just said to be barely a step above from stating the obvious, he decided to continue with a more extensive analysis.

"The territory he inhabits is sufficiently large to contain a considerable number of cities which are visited following an established pattern in order to acquire nourishment with minimal effort. Combining this methodical behavior to our collective remote reconnaissance capabilities as well as your crown's power, we can determine and predict his location at any moment. It would be possible to overwhelm him with numbers by fielding a large amount of combat capable vassals in a strategic location."

Once more, lord Raal kept observing the dragon lord in silence. What expression was below his mask, even he couldn't tell.

After a few moments had passed, his lord shared his opinion with him.

"I am against such approach."

The one he served analyzed his suggestion with ice-cold logic.

"Our opponent can use techniques and abilities so different from each other that we might be right in assuming he is capable of adopting most strategies with high efficiency. If we were to field waves of combatants and he was capable of enhanced wide area attacks at even half his barrier's strength, we would sustain great losses without achieving tangible results. Any standard approach is a risk not worth taking, regardless of the magnitude it is implemented at. If we are to eliminate our target, we have to do so with a strategy specificity designed around his weaknesses."

Overwhelming someone with superior numbers was standard procedure when against stronger opponents, but if the disparity in strength were too big then it would just result in a one-sided slaughter. Both magic and physical attacks are useless when facing incredibly superior adversaries, so they could only employ vassals at level eighty and above.

Assuming they could all be moved out of the guild-base without consequences, the disparity in strength was still a huge obstacle. It was very likely that their numbers would have little impact once the dragon begun to slay several opponents with each attack, leaving only the highest leveled to fight in the end.

And even if everything went well and the dragon was defeated, after the battle they would have to resurrect the deceased vassals and summon enough servants to replenish their numbers. There was no point in a victory if one had to cripple himself to obtain it.

After understanding what his lord was taking into consideration, he proposed a less direct approach.

"An alternative not reliant on combat would be to exploit the tributes he takes from humans. Adding doses of poison in the meals we are certain he will consume, we could eliminate him without incurring any direct danger."

Lord Raal kept observing the dragon feeding outside the window. Of all the kings they served before coming to the new world, he was definitely among the most feared. No one had ever seen his face, he moved in the castle completely unnoticed and spent most of his time in solitude.

When he had been summoned to be a part of the espionage squad and operate in hostile territory under his orders, a part of him couldn't help but to feel unease. He was one of the kings he loyally served, he admired his power and dedication, but there was something in him he couldn't understand.

"I had already thought about it myself. Under normal circumstances it would be a very effective strategy, but the target has already proven his ability to remove all poisons in his body at will. If he were to realize the tributes are poisoned before sustaining any meaningful damage, he would simply heal and stop following the path we spent so much time studying. This would also warn the target someone is attempting to kill him, which would prevent us from performing sneak attacks with the same level of effectiveness or use other poison dependent strategies."

The argument's logic ruthlessly dismantled his suggestion without leaving anything for him to say. After silence had engulfed the room for a few seconds, his lord concluded with a remark.

"Yours was a risk-wise ineffective suggestion, but way superior to the previous one in terms of approach. You are improving quickly. If you keep growing at this rate, it won't be long before I start to trust you with important operations."

Those words of praise came completely unexpected. He no longer knew how to react or what to say. He couldn't understand what lord Raal was thinking at all; probably the only ones able to do so were the servants he himself created.

Setting aside the attempts in discerning his master's thoughts, he decided to just ask him directly.

"My lord, could you share with your servant the plan you intend to use to bring down the dragon?"

A few seconds of silence passed before the answer arrived.

"I have ideated a strategy capable of slaying the dragon that puts us under minimal risk, but there still are some variables I need to fix before I share it with my comrades. Until then, I will keep studying the target and think whether a better plan exist."

Following those words they both returned to observe the dragon in silence, looking for details that might have been missed the previous times. The way he moved, the intervals at which he breathed, how he ate; all the high-leveled servants composing the espionage squad had now studied that scene once. They would have been able to describe each of his scales had someone asked them.

Suddenly, interrupting the motionless state they were in, his lord swiftly brought a hand to his head and asked a question to someone who wasn't in the room.

"Yes?"

Realizing lord Raal had received a [message], he continued to carry out his orders in silence while a part of him was attempting to reconstruct the conversation from the half he could hear.

"Excellent, where was it? How many have you found? Good. Don't touch them, I will be there in a moment."

The conversation ended as quickly as it had begun. His lord then walked a few steps away from the window and finally took his eyes off the dragon.

"Keep studying the target until he leaves. Report immediately to me if he does anything unusual."

As the one he served was about to leave he lowered his head in a bow, but remembering how much importance lord Raal put in efficiency over form he did so without taking his eyes off the dragon.

"My lord."

The hooded shadow then engulfed himself in even deeper darkness, one through which even his trained eyes couldn't see through. The portal to the dark world opened, and his lord completely vanished from their plane of existence.

* * *

As he grabbed a thick branch to redirect the momentum accumulated in his controlled fall to propel himself forward, Shen thought of how disappointing this all was. He then kicked a trunk to avoid mid-air collision with the tree and kept running at breakneck speed through the forest, remaining several meters above the ground while jumping from tree to tree.

The tracker at the head of their formation suddenly altered his course, causing all of them to once more change direction. Then they all jumped over a river barely five meters wide and kept going without slowing down for even a second.

While Shen kept following the ranger reading the tracks, there was only one thought in his mind.

Why was he doing this?

Generate a stable food income. When he first accepted the job he was attracted by the prospective of exploring a completely unknown world, fight mysterious opponents and use his perfect body to overcome great obstacles. He had been in the new world for two full weeks, and you know what had happened? Nothing. Just days and days of running in some god-forsaken forest with a bunch of elves, hunting some weak monsters even a noob wouldn't grind with.

Wake up, go hunt for hours, return home. That was his day. The fights he managed to get in were few and far between, not to mention utterly disappointing and over in a matter of seconds.

The ranger changed direction once more; rising one hand to signal the tracks they were now following had been left less than a day earlier. Shen scanned the area for powerful Ki, but aside for the seven of them there still was nothing whose level was over ten.

He wasn't too clear on what the others were doing, but he was pretty sure they were having more fun than he was. Only Zaiho didn't seemed too happy to be there.

Shen wasn't asking for much, just to fight someone seriously. Back at the castle he had sparred a couple of times with both Azul and Abelkin, but there was no way those could be considered fair fights; those two and their combat optimized builds could demolish him whenever they liked. Since his sparring partners hadn't come in the new world, there weren't powerful random encounters and the only other maxed-level physical fighters were top-tier power players, he had to either find a fairer challenge or be stuck in an endless loop of defeats while banging his head against indestructible walls.

Then, to his side, his Ki sense picked up multiple signals. Roughly five hundred meters away from them, twelve monsters divided in two groups of three and nine were seconds away from grouping up. They were the preys he had followed for the last hour. It was an unusually large pack; he rarely found more than three or four at once.

He immediately analyzed the intensity of their auras to assess their level; but as stronger entities could be detected from further away, he already had a good idea of their strength.

"Humph. Thirty at best."

Saying no more, he broke off formation. He could hear the elf at his back shouting "Everyone, follow lord Shen." but he gave it no weight.

He made Ki flow in his body to give his unarmed strikes the [Merciful] modifier; this way he could bring them back alive without having to hold his fists. He then poured Ki in his legs, gathering large amounts of mystical energy into the lower half of his body.

"[Ki jump]."

With no interest in the elves he was leaving behind, Shen released the stored Ki all at once to perform a jump beyond the realm of possibility.

He rose far above the trees, establishing visual contact with the now unified beast group midway through his arc.

They were about two meters tall, with greenish fur and thick spikes on their back. In Yggdrasil there were monsters called baloths, a species of large beasts quite similar to them, but the ones he was after were considerably weaker than their game counterparts.

He landed in the middle of them, his impact with the ground causing a large cloud of dust to engulf the area. The monsters had no idea what was happening, and they would never have the time to figure it out.

Though the dust prevented the baloths from seeing him, Shen could have sensed their Ki even if they hid in a hole several hundred meters below the ground. Before any of them managed to do so much as turning their heads, he had already halved their numbers. Moving at supernatural speed from one to the other and stunning each of them with a single strike, the monsters were already all on the ground long before the rest of his party could reunite with him.

Before a minute had passed the elves had already tied the beasts. The first few times Shen had brought out hunting groups of several dozen servants, but he had quickly realized the only thing he needed was someone to bring him close to the preys and to tie them up once he was done.

With the fun part already over, Shen decided to bring out his medallion. He had already done what he was supposed to, so he might as well just tell Govan to open a [Gate] on his location to bring the baloths at the flaying castle and get over with it.

However, a moment before activating the jewel's communication ability, Shen stopped. He looked at his left, observing something only he could see.

"My lord?"

The head tracker was standing in front of him.

"Is there something troubling you?"

Shen kept watching through his Ki vision.

"Eight hundred meters north of here. I can sense a Ki above average."

It was far more powerful than the ones emanated from the beasts, even superior to some members of his squad. It seemed to be around level sixty, perhaps even more.

"Lord Shen, how do you wish us to act?"

The Ki he sensed was roughly moving toward their location. There was no sure way to tell whether it was heading for them, but his instinct told him they would definitely meet if he stayed.

Ki vision was an incredibly powerful detection technique, able to locate all Ki in the surrounding area according to the intensity. It functioned in all directions simultaneously and was hardly hindered by physical cover. But even if it could only be fooled by the highest-level concealment techniques, it was far from perfect.

The reliance on Ki was itself the problem. Ki flowed in everything, even in those unable to use it, but it wasn't a reliable way to determine someone's power. A monk's Ki was directly proportional to his power, as was the case with most physical fighters; however magicians and everyone else whose power wasn't in his attack and HP would have way less Ki than a fighter of the same level. Govan for instance was a pure wizard, and though his HP were good the physical attack was simply pathetic; his Ki and a level fifty warrior's would appear to Shen as the same.

The one coming toward them could be everything from a level sixty monk to a level one hundred cleric, no way of determining which from that distance.

In the end, after a brief analysis, Shen smiled for the first time in over a week.

"We wait here."

At the meetings, Raal had told them magic wasn't common in this world and martial training rarely brought someone over level twenty; there were however strong monsters with special powerful abilities. As it was fairly unlikely he would meet either a powerful magic user or a highly trained warrior, it was very probable for him to encounter something in the middle; perhaps a monster around level eighty with strong special abilities. It would surely put up a better fight than the baloths did.

Everyone in his team had been selected primarily for their quick movement capabilities, even if something went wrong they could just escape in the forest while he dealt with the opponent alone. Shen had hence decided to wait for the quickly approaching monster to reach them and then defeat him in single combat. It would be his best fight ever since the transfer.

However, as the Ki's source was getting closer and his mind was running wild over what kind of mysterious monster he would be facing, multiple weaker Ki appeared around it.

"Cubs?"

They were roughly level fifty, and as the distance between them shortened multiple weaker ones appeared. They numbered fifteen by the time they crossed the five hundred meters range.

Their Ki appeared to be weaker than his group's, but his team was outnumbered over two to one.

Shen decided to not alter his previous decision. He was a level one hundred pure monk, and even though he was in the lower half of the max-leveled players ranking list, the opponents didn't seem to have anyone at his level. He would be able to cover for their lower numbers by taking multiple opponents at once.

Shen kept following their Ki as they approached. Considering the direction they were coming from, they would arrive from behind a hill about one hundred meters away from them.

When the approaching group was three hundred meters away, he heard a ranger place an arrow in his bow. Shortly after, everyone else in his group followed the example and readied their weapons. The incoming opponents had entered their perception's range.

Then, after he followed their Ki almost all the way up the hill, they stopped.

The elf and the other archers in his team all drew their bows, aiming them behind the hill.

"Lord Shen. Our opponents are large-sized creatures, all nearly stationary within our striking range. With your permission, we can launch a preemptive strike at any moment."

He looked at the hill covering their visual. They had run toward them at a steady pace all the way up and then stopped before entering their field of view. It wasn't the way a pack of beasts would act. What were they doing behind the hill? And who were they?

Shen wasn't the kind of guy that would make long extensive preparations and evaluate every minor detail to prepare a plan. From personal experience, such plans very rarely went exactly as desired. He was more the type who acted based on instinct, quickly reacting to whatever his opponent threw at him without thinking too much about it. It was a way of fighting with many downsides, but mid-operation adapting speed was surely not one of them.

He trusted gut feeling, and right now it told him behind the hill there weren't beasts.

"Permission denied. Don't engage without my orders under any circumstance."

He was in a problematic position. When he though the approaching group to be composed of mindless beasts, being in a open valley wasn't that huge of a deal; but if the other party was able to strategize they could endanger their preys. He couldn't even launch a preemptive attack; things might turn out ugly according to the other's identity. The only option he had left was to wait and be prepared to respond quickly to whatever happened.

Following those thoughts, he heard multiple incredibly heavy objects falling on the ground right where the other group was. Then, shortly after, other sounds seemed to indicate some form of manual labor. Before he could try to guess what was happening, several boulders flew in the air toward their direction.

They were under attack.

There were fourteen massive rocks in the air rapidly moving toward them, all about one cubic meter in size, the smallest at least two thousands tons. Anything they hit would be smashed to a pulp.

Shen moved before having a plan. He quickly estimated the approximate point those rocks would fall in as he run ahead of the formation. Three of them would hit the baloths while five would fall in front of them and could roll over the formation; as far as he was concerned, the remaining six were nothing more than a distraction to be ignored.

Using a small amount of Ki he jumped in the air, intercepting the trajectory of the boulders that would strike first. The initial two passed at his sides, each less than a palm away from him. Once they were aligned slightly behind him he pushed them outward at supernatural speed with his palms, keeping his balance as he deflected them both away from the formation and propelling himself further above in a single move.

As he went higher in the air, he bent his knees and shifted his weight in order to put his feet on the third rock. He then used Ki to increase his leg strength and jumped toward the ground, moving toward the next incoming boulder closest to his group while deflecting the trajectory of the one he jumped from.

He landed diagonally with one foot on the ground just two meters away from his party; the rock about to roll over him in less than a second. He exploited the momentum accumulated in the downward jump using his foot already on the ground as the fulcrum to a spinning kick, merging his previous motion with an extremely efficient attack. As his Ki-covered heel collided with the rolling boulder, the rock shattered in countless pieces that went flying away from the circle.

After kicking the stone away he was about to check where the next one would hit, but he immediately realized it had been covered by the one he just shattered.

The boulder would hit him before he could regain his balance. Jumping away would have been easy, but doing so would just mean someone else would have to deal with the stone; and rangers weren't exactly known for their high defenses. He never liked escort missions in games and his role in a fight was hardly to tank incoming attacks, but right now that was what he was doing, so he would have to get creative.

Even though the momentum of his spinning kick had been greatly reduced after hitting the rock, it was still enough to be made use of. He brought his outward-extended still-moving leg close to the one he was turning around, this way increasing the speed of his rotation.

The moment he was giving his back at the boulder he bent a leg while moving the other away from it, lowering his stance trying to get as much stability as it was possible to have in such conditions. He then covered his elbow with Ki and slammed it against the rock with as much strength as he could bring out from that position.

In the unbelievably short time frame it took his elbow to touch the stone, he poured Ki in it to change the damage he was dealing from bludgeoning to slashing and to increase his striking power by several times. The rock perfectly split in two halves at his back, both moving past him at his sides. In the same way he previously did with the first two incoming boulders, he deflected them away from his groups with his palms.

The moment preceding the arrival of the last few stones was enough for him to fully regain his balance. The way he just used the variable type of damage his unarmed strikes could deal to neutralize the last rock gave him an idea of how to get rid of the last three.

Shen moved toward the next stone so that it would pass by his side, then he shifted his weight forward to balance what he was about to do. Switching the damage type of his right hand to piercing, he penetrated the boulder with the same ease he would have found in water.

Shortly before the rock reached his wrist, he opened the hand and interrupted the piercing ability. With a perfect grip on the boulder he exploited its momentum to make it do a half spin around him and throw it toward the next stone, making both of them explode in the crash.

With only one rock left, Shen had now come to the full realization that even several objects weighting thousands of tons flying at him were hardly a threat to his new body.

He remained still, waiting for the boulder to cover the remaining distance for him.

His fist now dealt once more bludgeoning damage. He poured Ki in it to increase its power and hit the rock with all his strength. Shen smiled as the boulder exploded in countless tiny fragments before his eyes.

Then, at his back, he heard multiple stones falling behind the formation. From the moment he saw the boulders until now, less than ten seconds had passed.

Amazed by the reaction speed he hadn't even in real life, he looked back at his group to check if anyone was injured.

They all appeared to be unharmed, but their eyes and bows were still fixed on the location the boulders came from; they were still following the "don't engage" order he issued moments ago. It was now clear that the Ki he sensed didn't belonged to beasts.

He remained at the head of the formation and looked back to the unknown group through his Ki vision. They had begun to move.

Then, from behind the hill, several extremely tall figures appeared one after the other and walked toward them.

When one usually looked upon Shen, the first thing they noticed was his height. With two meters and thirty of densely packed steel hard muscles, he towered above most other players. He rarely spoke with someone without having to look down, and in fights he often found himself battling opponents less than half his height. Most of the people describing him would use the term "giant". Some of the guild members that picked dwarf or goblin as their race once lamented how uncomfortable they felt in talking to him in the game. It had been over two years ago, and only now he understood what they meant.

The fifteen individuals emerging from behind the hill were all over nine meters tall. With long braided beards and little to no hairs, their heads were somewhat small when compared to the rest of their bodies. Their skin had the color of brass, likely overly tanned from the forced continued exposure to the sun. Their arms were robust and long, with muscles built over a lifetime of carrying items fit for their size. Their legs were incredibly thick, evolved over countless generations to sustain their own weight.

None of them could be considered beautiful in the traditional sense of the term. Had they been five times smaller, an onlooker might actually have the courage to call them misshapen. They all had some form of deformity, giving them a nearly bestial look.

Each carried a crudely built mace, created by attaching large animal fangs to branchless trees. Their armor was made of several layers of pelt badly sewed together, forming a thick defensive cover over a palm wide; they however caused their lower half to appear even more disproportioned.

It was a group of hill giants.

Many players considered giants to be the larger version of trolls. Though they lacked the regeneration ability characterizing the latters, they shared some of the principal characteristics that made trolls famous in the game.

With incredibly high physical stats and proportionally low intelligence, they were the favored opponents of all whose who wanted to fight an all-brawn-and-no-brains monster. They compensated the lack of racial regeneration with strength, defenses and vitality higher than anything the troll race could offer.

The incredible variety of environment-themed sub-races was the greatest similarity between the two species, offering frost giants, fire giants, river giants, desert giants, stone giants and many others.

The hill giant was the most basic version one could encounter. They didn't possess the spell-like abilities most other giant varieties shared, nor the immunities and resistances they developed in their favored environment, but they moved in groups and threw rocks together from afar.

Unlike a projectile or a long range spell, thrown rocks were more similar to a smashing attack executed from a safe distance. Anti-projectile defenses didn't consider them as such, and even though they don't deal too much damage they are hard for some players to parry due to the rock's tendency of breaking in smaller parts when blocked. Hill giants earned their name for their favored strategy; going on top of a hill to maximize the rock's range and throw several at the same time.

Shen's previous assessment of their level in the eighties had been under the assumption there weren't monsters whose Ki would closely match their level or warriors trained to the point of reaching those levels in the first place, so he approximated their actual power to be ten or twenty levels higher than what the Ki suggested. However, due to them belonging to the all-brawn-and-no-brains monster category, their Ki was actually a fairly realistic approximation of their power.

Part of him was disappointed for the approaching group to turn out weaker than expected, but a sense of curiosity had already overtaken such negative emotion. Hill giants in the game never appeared beyond level fifty, but among them there was one over ten levels above that.

He was walking at the head of the other giants, covering over three meters with each of his steps; his beard nearly white and his head covered in wrinkles. Several iron plates reinforced his pelt-made padded armor; closer inspection revealed them to be numerous human sized breastplates crudely tied to his body. Shields and chains from the same source further strengthened his defenses, protecting vital areas and keeping together the mountain of objects that made his armor. His mace was also made out of a branchless tree, but the animal fangs had been removed in favor of the much superior iron, unwillingly provided by the late owners of roughly forty swords. Who he fought was as clear as who had won.

Shen then realized he wasn't the only one studying; that giant was also checking the area, his eyes constantly moving from the shattered boulders to Shen. He then looked behind his back, toward a relatively smaller giant staying behind the others. He was holding a rock shaped like a pyramid, sculpted with the same refinement that characterized the rest of their equipment. When the giant's eyes met, they both nodded and the smaller one tightened his grip on their concept of special weapon.

The giant then raised his arm, making the ones following him stop about fifty meters from Shen. He then proceeded alone for about twenty meters, stopped and leaned his mace on the ground, holding it like a cane.

Shen looked behind. Four of the six subordinated he brought along were still pointing their arrows at the giants, the remaining two had their staves ready to cast spells.

The question now was: what was he supposed to do?

Game's giants, with a very limited number of exceptions, were just monsters to be killed. They pretty much all had negative karma, making them either evil or just chaotic in the best case scenarios. All the lore he had ever heard depicted them as savages that attacked the defenseless or even the source of some of the most gruesome pieces of backstory in the game. The game designers had made one thing perfectly clear: kill giants on sight.

The one in front of him had obviously killed several humans and was responsible of throwing over a dozen boulders at them, but it was equally clear he wanted to negotiate.

Strong of his estimate forty levels below himself and his most trusted gut feeling, Shen decided to go talk with him.

"My previous order stand, don't engage without orders. And lower your bows, don't point them at the giants."

And in a voice so feeble only the rangers could hear he added "And be ready to act."

Following those words, the rangers lowered their aim and watched him proceed toward the hill giant.

Shen kept walking until he was about five meters from the giant, then he looked up. It was probably due to the difference in proportions caused by the large foots and the small head, but being this close to the almost ten meters tall warrior made him look even larger than he actually was.

"I am called Zur Trunkarms, chief of the boulderfeet giants."

His voice was strong and loud, befitting a warrior of his size.

"I am called Shen Shou, king in the flying castle."

They had all previously agreed that it was all right for them to say this much if it ever were to become necessary. He then continued immediately, asking the question in his head without giving the giant a chance to inquire any further.

"What brings you here?"

The white bearded giant lifted his arm, proving Trunkarms to be a most fitting surname, and pointed at the monsters guarded by Shen's group.

"I was leading my tribe's warriors in our baloth hunt. Those are our preys."

Shen understood quite early where the conversation was heading.

"There must be a misunderstanding. I assure you those baloths were all caught by us."

The giant lowered his arm, bringing it back on the handle of his mace. His half-closed eyes filled with displeasure.

"We have been following them since yesterday's morning. We crossed woods, rivers and valleys to get them. The preys you took are ours."

Shen understood quite well how that giant felt. He had encountered many kill-stealers in the Yggdrasil days; none of them got to go away on their legs. Considering he once attacked his own allies when they stole his kills, Zur was being far calmer about it than he would have been instead. There was however one somewhat major detail needing to be addressed.

"I fully understand how you feel, but you were hundreds of meters away when we captured this group. A prey isn't entirely own until someone catch it, and you did nothing to signal these baloths as yours."

The giant curved down a side of his mouth in revulsion.

"Giants are the only baloth hunters in the forest. Beginning two weeks ago the baloths became harder and harder to find, the few remaining ones are ours by right."

Shen was loosing his patience. Aside for the utterly disgusted looks the giant was giving him, he was also being unreasonable. For as much as he abhorred kill stealing and respected the effort anyone put in a fight, no one could claim ownership of something meant to be for all. Every time a guild monopolized the monsters in a public area for their drops and killed everyone else who hunted in it, they were even worse than kill-stealers.

"No hunter has the right to claim an entire species as his personal prey. If I see a baloth and can capture it, what am I supposed to do? Let it go so that one day maybe a giant might catch it?"

Zur's eyebrows grew closer to each other, forming an enraged expression on his face. He tightened the grip his hands had on the mace and spoke with disdain in his voice.

"My people need those beasts to survive."

"So do mine." Retorted Shen.

Zur let one hand go of the mace and took a step forward. While normally one step wouldn't make much of a difference with the two interlocutors standing five meters apart, the nearly ten meters tall giant's step covered about half of that distance.

"Giants eat a lot more than humans."

It was true. Giants, as well as most other large-sized monsters, have increase food consumption as racial weakness. It was only made worse by the fact that for every size-category increase the food consumption augmented exponentially. The flying castle also hosted several creatures with this weakness, but they solved the problem long ago by giving them rings of sustenance. The giants needed those baloths much more than they did.

That was however only assuming the number of mouths each side had to feed was equal.

He stepped forward like the hill giant did, not remotely intimidated by the show of strength a lower leveled creature attempted to put on.

"We both have the duty to feed our people. While it is true that your subjects individually need more food than mine, the ones I am responsible for far outnumber yours. The giant's hunger doesn't come even close to bridge the gap between yours needs and ours.

Hill giants were very well known in the game due to the frequency they appeared on most maps; but unlike species such as goblins, whose large spread over many areas was explained by their increased reproduction speed, hill giants did so due to their nomadic nature.

If in the game you were to encounter hill giants on Jötunheimr and follow them for long enough, you would eventually find their tribe's camp. They changed location at irregular intervals, so one had to exploit this finding as quickly as possible. Some bragged about defeating the entire camp alone, others trolled noobs saying that if you were to give a legendary item to the tribe leader he would upgrade it to divine class for you; but no matter the story's reliability, all reported hill giant village's instances had something in common: the giants were never over fifty.

It was a wild guess, something he said purely because of what he knew to be true in a game; but he trusted his instinct far more than logic.

"We need those beasts!"

He took Zur's shout of anger as confirmation of his gut feeling's reliability.

"If you giants are in such desperate need of baloths, shouldn't you go hunt others rather than staying here and expect me to give you the ones I captured?"

Zur looked down upon him; he then threateningly lowered his posture, shortening the distance between his head and Shen.

"Capturing a baloth is only the last moment of the hunt. If in danger they group together. When giants hunt, we chase them over the large areas so that they form a numerous group for us to take. We have just gathered every baloth in this side of the forest, the least you could do is to give us the nine we grouped before reaching this valley."

Well, the number of baloths _was_ unusually high. An equal division could be the most peaceful resolution to this quarrel.

"Nine baloths are a little too much. I acknowledge you gathered three quarters of them, but we grouped the rest and defeated them all. I think splitting them six each is only generous."

Zur's face was showing nothing but rage. He straightened his back, putting once more his incredible height on full display. His mace left the ground and rested on his shoulder, while his free hand closed in a fist. The hill giant warriors behind him all tightened their grips on their melee weapons.

"Hadn't you meddled in our hunt we would have gotten all of them on our own."

Shen looked at the group behind him with the corner of his eye. The rangers had their arrows lowered and the druids their staved behind their backs; anyone underestimating those elves would be drilled with arrows and buried in the ground before having the time to realize their mortal mistake.

"How? Throwing rock at them as well? Is that how giants solve all their problems?"

Zur snapped.

"Humans are nothing more than little weaklings! Slimy poison-tongued cowards siding with whoever is stronger and betraying their friends the very moment someone is offering even a half-rotten fish more!"

That was it. As the only human present, that was personal.

"Wow. Those are _a lot_ of words for someone that with a lifespan of centuries can't even figure out farming. Has some blood finally reached your brain? It took it only several decades. This might just be the best chance you will _ever_ have to build something with a roof on the top."

Once both sides were done spitting over the possibility of a peaceful resolution, Zur was the first to attack.

He lowered his posture by multiple meters while leaning forward, building as much momentum as possible in the upper half of his boy. Once his torso was almost parallel to the ground, he used his shoulder as the fulcrum of the lever his mace had turned into. With the combined forces of gravity, inertia and the trunk-like giant's arm, the mace became the deadly conduct of an attack uncharacteristically efficient and precise for a hill giant.

The earth-shattering blow was sufficiently strong to crumble stonewalls and slay any living being it made contact with. It was an attack many orders of magnitude above simple large thrown rocks, born with the inhuman strength of a giant, the technique of a warrior and experience gathered in over a century of battles against humans and forest monsters. The only thing the thrown rocks had more than such magnificent blow was increased range, but nearly everyone beholding it would agree its sheer power was entirely worth the decreased range; Shen was however in the disagreeing few.

He was a close ranged fighter, but his defense relied on dodging attacks rather than blocking them. Any rock going past him could have potentially killed the beasts he was supposed to bring back alive, but anything close-ranged could just be dodged.

He moved two steps to the side, watching with his quickened perception of reality the mace slowly heading toward the ground he had been on.

Giants were strong, but many seemed to forget just how low their agility was. Shen's instead was the second highest the guild had ever had, with only Mr. Sneaky Shadow ahead of him.

All-brawn-and-no-brains monsters were loved for many reasons. All non-exceedingly-specialized combat classes could deal with them easily and there was also a certain charm in defeating powerful opponents with a smart trick, but more importantly they served as a wall to break for players that wished to begin their journey toward competitive play. Anyone struggling against a monster whose battle strategy could be summarized with "attack until he is dead", wasn't even worthy of a level one hundred character.

As the giant's mace reached his side, Shen instinctively went with the monk's standard battle approach. Step one: disarm your opponent at the first opening.

Ask any player and they will all agree, monks are fundamentally weaker than warriors. The first step every monk needs to take is accepting this as fact and work around it. A warrior with a weapon is superior to a monk, a warrior without a weapon is inferior to a monk; the next step is fairly intuitive.

A warrior and a monk also both have very adaptable fighting styles, though the two of them adopting the same would inevitably result with the warrior performing better. The most important difference is that while a warrior needs to be equipped with gear suitable for the style he plans to adopt, a monk can switch between styles with just some Ki; Shen had even selected a monk archetype made especially for this, all to place fast adaptability at the core of his fighting style.

With Zur still midway through his attack, Shen used Ki to make his leg deal slashing damage and used an upward kick on the falling mace, taking advantage of the giant's strength to further increase the damage to the weapon.

Had there been a level one hundred player in place of the hill giant, that reckless opening-filled attack would have cost him his divine-ranked weapon. Of the crudely built mace probably ranking even lower than low, Zur was now holding only the handle.

Moving at the preternatural speed his agility allowed, his kicking leg made a complete circle above him and firmly planted itself in the ground. With now perfect balance and stability, Shen moved in front of the still-falling severed mace and took a fraction of a second to see what counterattack would cause the most damage.

The hill giant warriors behind Zur had begun moving when they saw their leader bending to attack, but none of them had yet completed his first step. Their arc-like formation wasn't as neat as it would have been if they hadn't been on uneven ground, now he wasn't sure how many giants he could hit at once.

He gathered a considerable amount of Ki on the palm of his hand and aligned himself so that three giants ended up on the opposite side of the mace's head. He then abandoned the "weapon damaging" style for a "long distance smashing attack" one, ironically suited against hill giants.

With his feet solidly anchored to the ground, he placed his Ki-filled palm on the mace's head shortly before it could hit the terrain. Then, releasing all the stored Ki at once, the swords-covered half trunk flew at insane speed toward the attacking giants.

One of Zur's legs was grazed in the process. Shen hadn't considered it when he had decided to strike at the warriors in the rear. It was unexpected, but not unwelcomed. An example of the nice things one could sometimes experience when fighting while making a plan on the go.

The death-thirsty mass of blunt wood and sharp iron flew toward the warriors. The first was hit right in the stomach. His padded armor did nothing to protect him, as his body did nothing to protect the ones standing behind. Once the bloodstained spinning half mace had produced two messy halves of the first giant, it flew barely slower toward the second. He was hit in the shoulder; the force of the attack made the oversized projectile continue unfazed after brutally severing his arm. After leaving behind the giant doomed to bleed to death in a few seconds, the broken mace headed toward the last two giants unfortunate enough to be at the edges of its path. Their fate was analogue to the one they stood behind, lost of a limb, countless cuts from several spinning rusted swords followed by a quick and painful death.

The bloodstained improvised boulder collided with the hill, after which it kept bouncing until it was lost somewhere in the close by forest.

It took the giants a moment to realize what had happened. In the few seconds it took their leader to execute his legendary quick strike, a lone human had destroyed his extraordinary mace, wounded his leg and slayed four hill giant warriors in a single strike.

After the moment passed, all the giants sprang into action. However, not all of them moved with the same objective in mind.

The two giants left isolated in the right side of the formation, having barely escaped Shen's counterattack, decided their lives were meant for more than to become grass fertilizer. Other two on the opposite side of the arc, having no one behind them to stop their escape, promptly followed their example and attempted to put as much distance as possible between them and the red haired human.

Rather than the five club-wielding giants charging at him or the rock thrower spinning around his weirdly shaped boulder to build up momentum, the deserting giants constituted a larger problem.

Azul had decided only Mr. Sneaky Shadow could make direct contact with the new world's natives, as he was the only one they were sure would never be found out. If some giants got away and spread stories of what they saw, he would have his hands filled with a lot of trouble.

"Capture them."

No more details were needed for his party to execute the command. The rangers drew their bows as one and loosed the arrows in a perfect line. Each of them hit a giant in the back of the knee, causing far more damage than one would have imagined from arrows of that size. As the giants fell on the ground the druids immediately cast their spells, summoning magical vines to restrict their ability to move.

Once the deserters had been dealt with, Zur had already once more attempted an attack.

He shifted all his weight on his good leg and raised the injured one. Following the tactic his tribe was named after, the chief of the boulderfeet giants was willing to sacrifice his wounded leg to crush him.

Shen had a smirk on his lips as the colossal foot fell toward him. Pouring large amounts of Ki in his hands that considerably reduced his reserves, Shen raised his palms to block the giant's stomping attack. A moment before it could turn in a contest of strength, Shen released all the stored Ki toward the giant's foot.

The six other hill giants still in the fight saw something contrary to everything they believed in. A human under their tribe chief's foot had pushed the strongest giant they had ever known dozens of meters in the air, making him spin multiple times before finally falling to the ground behind them.

Once the great Zur landed on his head, all the giants and elves witnessing the fall let their thoughts be clearly visible on their faces.

There's no way he survived that.

Blood was flowing out of Zur's body, filling the giant-sized crater made in the fall. Most of his bones were visibly broken, the skull being completely unrecognizable.

A corner of Shen mind felt displeasure for the death of an unusually strong hill giant, but it wasn't really that important. Izora had already figured out resurrection, she could just bring him back later if he was still curious enough.

A strong incoming sound brought his attention back to the still ongoing battle. Even when nine of the fifteen giants were either dead or incapacitated, the remaining six kept fighting with all their might.

The five giants that were still charging at him had split into two smaller groups. The left-handed giants were on one side while the right-handed took on the other. Running toward him in two almost parallel lines, they wanted to fight him five on one while exploiting the advantage of both charge and flanking attacks.

It was an interesting tactic, one that allowed making the most of a warrior group fighting a single more powerful opponent. He had never seen such thing in the game; it was probably the result of fighters getting creative to compensate for the lack of magic users, or maybe they were just that desperate.

With Ki boosting his speed Shen run outside of the double charging lines, reaching the side hosting three giants. Then, extending his arm outward and making it deal slashing damage, he sprinted to the opposite end of the line while cutting away as many legs as he could find. In the short time it took him to finish, his hand had penetrated six ankles and now half as many giants were bleeding on the ground.

As the three remaining ones saw their companions falling on the ground, the stone-carrying warrior had finally accumulated enough momentum and threw the unusually shaped boulder at him.

The rock flew toward Shen without spinning, the point making it the most aerodynamic object anyone had thrown at him today. It was somewhat late in the fight for it, but Shen had been waiting for this moment ever since the sword-covered mace had killed the giants standing right next to that one.

He moved aside and made the boulder fly past him. Once it was behind, he made his hand deal piercing damage and penetrated it in the back. Then he would have thrown it at the two giants standing in a straight line, but it was never going to happen.

The boulder broke into countless pieces the moment he pierced it, revealing to be nothing but a stone husk carved out of two large rocks and sealed with wax. Once the outer shell was destroyed, countless little yellow-striped insects flew in the air around him. The boulder had been filled with beehives to turn it into a wide area weapon.

Shen was… mildly surprised? Against normal humans it would have probably been quite effective, but a level one hundred monk's skin was as resistant as legendary armor. Those bees weren't going to harm him even if they had been billions. That however didn't changed the fact they were surprisingly annoying to have around.

He gathered Ki in his chest, creating a small mystic globe inside his body. Shen then made it burst to generate an explosion with him at the center.

"[Ki wave]."

The gathered Ki propagated quickly, destroying all the bees flying around him. Since Shen used only a fraction of his Ki, both range and destructive power were low; but it was more than enough to eliminate a bunch of annoying bugs.

Having wasted his counterattack opportunity with what the giants considered to be their secret weapon, he now had to find a new way to deal with the remaining three. This regretfully happened whenever he attempted to plan something.

Shen checked who the opponent closest to him was. The three remaining hill giants were all at the same distance; they had in fact surrounded him while he was preparing the Ki wave.

He decided to finish it once and for all. Shen covered all his body in Ki, strengthening it and switching all the damage type he would deal to piercing.

The first to go down was the beehive thrower. He made a Ki jump to reach his chest, and once he was there no resistance was found. He passed right through him, leaving a man-sized hole in his chest.

His next jump brought him in front of another giant looking in horror at the falling body of his comrade; he realized he was about to meet the same fate. The remaining two giants were now in a straight line. He jumped through them in the same way he just did a moment ago, and the last opponents fell motionless on the ground like puppets whose strings have been cut.

Shen looked at the battlefield that had formed a few moments ago, all the giants were restrained, dead or dying. The four of them that attempted to escape were unmoving on the ground, bound by magical vines tougher than steel.

It was his complete victory.

He walked toward the four almost deserters. They struggled to free themselves from their magical restraints, but to no avail.

Shen went for the giant who had been closest to the ones he killed throwing the severed mace and the first to show his back; his instinct told him he was the most coward of the bunch. When the giant saw him coming, he could no nothing but shiver in fear and look helplessly at the human.

Behind Shen, one of the elves had left the formation and was now running to his side. Once the two of them were in front of the giant, Shen begun the interrogation.

"Where is your village?"

The giant didn't answer, though the fear in his eyes was clear.

"Lord Shen asked you a question."

He opened his mouth, but the answer didn't come right away.

"I… I… I don't know. We followed the tribe leader trough the forest."

At those words Shen tilted his head to the side. The fear he instilled in the giant immediately made him more cooperative.

"But I can track back our steps! It may take a while, but I can bring you back to the village!"

That was hardly a good proposal. Shen bent his knees and lowered his posture, bringing his face closer to the giant's eyes.

"Listen, big guy. You see this elf? He can bring me to your village in less than a couple hours. As for you, the moment you die you stop being my problem. Do yourself a favor and tell me _how_ you can be useful."

His eyes widened in terror as those words left the monk's lips.

"I… I know things! I can tell you everything you want to know of the village! I know where the other tribes meet! I will tell you everything you want to know!"

By now, Shen's opinion of the giant couldn't be any lower.

"Then what are you waiting for?"

He heard the traitorous giant try to suppress a scream of fear.

"There… There are twenty-six giants left in the village! They won't move to a new location until our return. And in two full moons all the giant tribes will meet in a valley; I can show you how to get there!"

Shen had no idea what to do next.

He stood back up and slowly walked away from the giant. He heard the elf at his back saying, "You better hope what you said to be true", but he had other thoughts through his head. Namely, he had no idea of what to do.

He grabbed his medallion and activated its communication ability. He was a fighter, not a planner; that was what guild leaders were for.

The light kept pulsing for a few seconds, constantly changing shape without a clear pattern. Finally, far away from where he was, the one holding another of those medallions accepted the call.

The light quickly formed a demonic shape over the jewel, imposing and fearsome to look at. Horns covered his body and a crown rested on his head. His closed wings resembled a mantle; his arms were crossed on his chest.

"Azul. Something has happened."

* * *

"We need to do something before it's too late."

The old man had been talking for over ten minutes; he had stopped listening after one.

"The number of rats in the sewers had been steadily increasing at an alarmingly rapid pace. Unless we divert the twelve percent of this month's road maintenance budget to finance a disinfestation operation, the colony will grow to the point underground maintenance is impossible."

He glanced at the other people in the room. Either they were better actors than he gave them credit for, or somehow they had an endless reserve of willpower to actually pay attention for minutes of uninterrupted rat talk.

"Comparing the twin reviews prepared by the consultants it is clear this rodents do not belong to the same species that presented an analogue problem seven years prior, but are instead a more aggressive race with a higher reproduction capacity and above normal size. They already drew off their less invasive counterparts, and if they proceed maintaining this…"

"Thank you, Lord Broscov. Like always, you have made your point abundantly clear."

If he heard once more the word "rat" he would have the one saying it imprisoned regardless of status.

"All in favor to proceed with lord Broscov's proposal. Raise hand."

He, the old man and the other three head nobles forming the city council raised their hands.

"All contrary to the proposal. Raise hands."

There were no more people left to vote, but traditions had to be upheld.

"The proposal is unanimously approved. Lord Broscov is authorized to proceed as he have detailed to solve the problem."

Once the rat issue was finally settled, he inertly sighed in relief. Lord Broscov was the eldest among the family heads, which made his competency and experience a valuable resource when well targeted, but every time he proposed something he would talk until it was put to vote out of desperation.

"Let's then proceed to the next item. Lord Nehim."

As the elderly man sat down, a blond man in his late thirties stood and addressed the gathered nobles.

"The tribute is already being gathered as we speak. I have hired laborers from the outer ring to transport everything in the inner storage house; tomorrow morning the southern half of the main road is to be made inaccessible for anyone else. Then in the following two days the raw materials will be processed to better satisfy the tastes of the dragon lord. The process is estimated to end six hours before his arrival, which will give us ample time to transport it to the main square."

Gerber El Nihem was competent, efficient and reliable. There was but a single flaw in his conduct; they both hated each other to the bone.

"Everything is regular then. All in favor to proceed with lord Nehim's proposal. Raise hand."

Five voters agreed to the passage of laborers from the outer to the inner ring.

"All contrary to the proposal. Raise hands."

He could think of at least a couple of people unwilling to let inhabitants of the outer ring tarnish their beautiful streets with their dirty feet, himself for instance. But no one was foolish enough to even risk a delay when the dragon lord's tribute was the subject.

"The proposal is unanimously approved. Lord Nehim is authorized to proceed as he have detailed to respect the schedule."

Did it just have to be laborers of the outer ring? Couldn't he have though of literally anyone else?

"Let's then proceed to the next item. Lord Sharlev."

As Gerber sat down with nothing left to say, another noble stood in his place. He knew them to be about the same age, but the former had aged considerably worse than the latter.

"There are concerning developments regarding the giants sighted two days ago in the forest southeast of here."

Those words sent chills down his spine. Giants had proven to be the greatest threat Ulovale could ever face. Areas of the city never completely recovered from their assault even if more than a decade had passed; many nobles had perished to defend their home. All concerning giants was listened with the upmost attention.

"A scouting troupe had been following their tracks from a safe distance ever since the sighting report reached us, and they followed them in what appear to be a monster hunt."

Monsters were hunting other monsters. As long as they both remained in the forest it wasn't his problem, but if they were to reach Ulovale's fields it would have catastrophic consequences.

"The group is formed by fifteen warriors, one of which I believe to be his tribe leader."

He waited for the following words with fear in his heart. If they were headed toward the city it would inevitably become a battle. Though their walls defended them from all monsters living in the forest, giants were able to quickly open a breach throwing boulders from the distance. Even if lower in numbers compared to their last assault, giants were always a threat.

"The scouts followed their trail until they reached a rather small valley in the deepest part of the forest, after which all tracks disappeared."

Disappeared?

Seeing the doubt on his face, lord Sharlev continued his explanation.

"I have examined the location with my own eyes and I conform the tracks suddenly end in that valley. I fear our lifelong opponents have found a way to move without leaving traces. If this were to be true and it is now impossible to track down their location, they could form larger groups without our knowledge and launch a large surprise siege."

Disappearing giants. If anyone else in the room had said it he would have mocked him halfway through the sentence, but openly doubting a war hero and veteran when discussing battle was out of the question; especially if one considered lord Sharlev was one of the nobles supporting him.

"Have you ideated a course of action to counter this threat?"

Their top commander swiftly shared his plan.

"Assuming my hypothesis to be correct, trying to locate giants is now wasted effort. I suggest we immediately reduce our scouting operations and use those men to strengthen the city's defenses. If the giants actually are untraceable, our only option is to maximize our defensive capabilities where we know they will strike. If we later have further proof of this being an isolated case, we will gradually return to adopt our previous modus operandi."

"Lord governor, I wish to suggest an alternative course of action."

Lord Nehim interrupted the commander right before he could bring the matter to the votes. Since forcing to silence the head of a noble family in the council wasn't among his privileges as governor, he had no choice but to gesture him to continue.

"Rather than reforming our entire defense system based on an isolated event, I would suggest to first ascertain the source of this unusual occurrence. We know from previous reports that giants abandon their camp shortly after concluding their hunting expeditions. Following the giant's tracks backward would allow us to gain further insights on the matter. Even discovering the location of their last village and verifying whether it's inhabited or not would be extremely useful."

Gerber looked at him in the eyes with the gaze he always had when he attempted to challenge his authority. He had to struggle to not distort his face in disgust whenever he saw that annoying look.

"I hence suggest we hire professional hunter who are expert in stealthy movement and following tracks, make them find the village for us while we maintain the current deployment of our forces and have them report their findings."

You could count on one hand the things he hated more than the smug Gerber had on his face when he proposed something he knew he wouldn't approve; but his right to veto applied only to matters concerning direct interaction with the dragon lord, so he had to be patient and block it the usual way.

"All in favor to proceed with lord Sharlev's proposal. Raise hand."

His hand was the first to be added to the list, immediately followed by lord Sharlev's; it was understandable why the commander of their armed forces would oppose relying on hired hunters rather than the troops he trained. Lord Dubrov joined them shortly after, the best puppet one could buy.

"All in favor to proceed with lord Nehim's proposal. Raise hand."

Agreeing with his own idea, Gerber put his open hand in the air. Even if fully aware of the futility of the act lord Broscov did the same. Personally, he was unsure whether it was his honest opinion or if he did it just because his granddaughter would soon marry the Nehim heir. Either way, the end result was the one he wanted. He couldn't help but to show a glimmer of joy as he made the outcome official.

"Lord Sharlev's proposal is approved three to two. He is authorized to proceed as detailed to reorganize our defenses."

As unpleasant as it was to work together with lord Nehim, he always felt a considerable amount of satisfaction in rejecting his proposals using council vote. The awareness he could have everything he desired approved or rejected made collaboration with his hated rival almost enjoyable, even if only from a very specific point of view.

Having finally settled the last item on his list, the concluded the day announcing the end of the meeting.

"Very well my lords. As dusk is near and there is nothing left requiring our attention, I believe it is now time to conclude our meeting."

Seeing no one attempting to add anything to his statement or visibly against it, he pronounced the usual formula to officially conclude the meeting.

"The council is now closed."

Waiting for those words, the men sitting in the room stood up and headed toward the exit; some considerably faster than others.

He instead remained where he was, observing the head nobles leaving the room one after the other. First lords Dubrov and Sharlev, both eager to return to their respective activities; though their natures couldn't be more different. Lord Broscov was third, his old body couldn't move any faster than that.

He waited for the last lord to be about to cross the door before calling him.

"Lord Nehim, may I have a word?"

Stopping right where he was, Gerber waited by the door for him to stand up and arrive. He chose to take his sweet time to do so.

Once the only two people left in the room stood one in front of the other, lord Nehim spoke to him.

"Lord Ancool, is there something I can do for you?"

That's _lord governor_ you imbecile.

"Yes actually."

He put his hand on the other lord's shoulder and shortened the distance between his mouth and Gerber's ear.

"Stop embarrassing yourself."

His voice was but a whisper, barely audible yet extremely cruel.

"What were you hoping to achieve with that ridiculous suggestion? Hiring hunters to hide in the forest rather than relying on our militia? Did you honestly thought your opinion could have any worth? How could you even think your words would have more impact than a war hero's? Let me give you a small lesson of strategy…"

Lord Ancool patted Gerber on the shoulder with a mocking smile on his lips.

"Wars aren't won hiding in the shadows."

Without giving him time to answer in any way, he left the room and headed toward the chambers reserved to him.

Ulovale's lord governor was a position granting many privileges to the one holding it. Being able to live in the chambers above the council's room wasn't as profitable as the right to a tenth of the council owned fields or complete tax exemption, but nothing proved the power of his station like living in the same building where all of the political decisions were taken.

Obister Vaf Ancool had once been a lucky man. Though in his life he hadn't been any more or less lucky than anyone else, he had once been in the right place at the right time; through correct decisions he even managed to make the most out of it.

Fourteen years ago two unforeseen events occurred one shortly after the other. The first was his election as the city's Governor, result of the position originally rotating from one family head to the other on a yearly basis and his father perishing of old age when his family's turn was close. The second was the large-scale assault of the combined giant tribes when the city's defense was his responsibility.

In recorded history there had been only one time when all the five giant tribes had united as one against Ulovale, the great giant's assault.

Over one hundred and twenty giants had assaulted the city all at once, throwing five volleys of boulders that opened a one hundred meters wide breach in the outer wall. They flooded in the lower ring and turned a large section of the city in a living hell.

While thousands were dying, his position forced him to lead the defense forces from a safe location. For the two hours the siege lasted, he had the duty to direct the nobles' troops in defense of the city, two hours where he had power over life and death on everyone.

His political opponents were made to lead the vanguard while his allies had the rearguard. Anyone fighting an army of giants would have no chance of surviving for more than a couple of minutes. Swords had no way to penetrate padded armor over a palm thick, and they had already spread in a large area of the city. He could only chose in what order the nobles had to die.

When the dragon lord arrived the giants retreated immediately. Humans had been paying him tributes from before they developed written language; giants instead had never earned his protection. Obister never deluded himself in thinking the dragon would actually protect them, but he knew humans would be ignored while giants would be hunted down and devoured.

When the siege was over all the family heads opposing him had died, all his allies owed him their lives and the city knew him as the one who lead them to victory when the giant's army attacked. He was named governor for life by popular acclamation and from that point on his life had been following the easy road.

Of the seven noble families existing back then, two of the ones whose head was killed were also without male heirs. Using his position and fame to marry into the stronger of the two had been easy, and he pulled some strings for the now glorious lord Sharlev to do the same with the other.

His life from that day on had been devoted to gather as much power as humanly imaginable in his hands, and the rich hallways he was walking through were testament of everything he achieved.

In his perfect life there was but a single stain, a walking talking stain he had to work with; a stain people referred to as lord Gerber El Nehim.

If his life's work was to gather all the power in his hands, Gerber's seemed to be fracturing it in as many little pieces as possible. He couldn't even fathom why he was putting so much effort in destroying everything he had built. If all the power was already in the hands of a few individuals, why not just give it all to the one already wielding the most?

He was nothing but a bug crawling in his house, an annoying fly that you just can't drive away. He wasn't even the only one in his family to be more insect than human; his son was as much as a cockroach as he was. How in the world had he survived the poison?

Twenty gold pieces to smuggle a single black cobra's flower in the inner ring, thirty to have an alchemist extract and refine the poison for an entire month, fifty to bribe a Nehim's maid in sneaking the extract in his water, ten to have an assassin close both mouths, a week for the symptoms to show, two months for it to reach the final stages and it had all been for nothing.

He paid a fortune to get rid on his rival's heir, several more times that amount to prevent him from getting a cure and the little bastard was still alive.

Before having him silenced, the alchemist had said diluting the extract would slow down the effects, but he had made adamantly clear that once injected the only outcome could be death. Then the other day, out of nowhere, he just saw the brat training his swordsmanship in the Nehim Mansion's gardens; healthier than anyone can ever hope to be.

Just… How?

Obister reached a door guarded by two armed men. He didn't want to even think about the capital he lost in this affair. Spending another night with his last investment would at least give him the feeling his gold wasn't entirely wasted.

As the guards opened the door for him, he gave them their orders for the night.

"Don't let anyone disturb me until the sun rises."

He then entered, the door closed at his shoulders.

The lord governor looked at his surroundings.

The room he was in was lavishly decorated, with an enormous bed in the middle and mirrors adorning the walls. There weren't however neither windows nor any other kind of opening toward the outside. He had them all walled up to prevent any possibility of the most expensive investment he had ever made to ever leave the room. No one but him was allowed inside.

Laid down on the bed, chained at her wrists to make sure nothing undesirable could happen, a young blond-haired girl was sleeping. She had a slender body and her height was slightly below average; his servants kept her hairs short, but she was still very attractive. The clothes he bough her in had been thrown away and replaced with more refined ones, though the style was equally exciting. He never managed to get her name in his head, but it wasn't really important.

"Cleric."

The girl slowly opened her eyes, though she didn't look at anything in particular; her body didn't even move beyond that.

She wasn't as attractive as his wife, but with what he paid to get her he would use his slave in any way he could. And besides, certain things could be done only to a slave.

His consort on the other hand seemed to somehow not be too eager to produce an heir to continue his family name.

Looking at his body in one of the mirrors he struggled to deny there was some amount of legitimacy behind her behavior. An abundant decade of banquets had its toll on him. Egg-shaped, obese and incredibly fat were the terms his spies reported the ill-tongued plebeians were using to describe him. Personally, he didn't cared. His body was the direct outcome of his wealth and power; he could only take pride in it.

Before getting started with the night entertainment, he searched his pocket for the small key he always carried with him. He hadn't allowed for copies to be made, the one he carried was the only one whose existence he permitted.

With the key in his hand, he opened an extremely sturdy-looking metal crate. In it, half a dozen bottles of wine were carefully stored. They were nothing that could be acquired within the dragon lord's territory; he regularly hired mercenaries to get him those bottles from another dragon's land. Each of them was worth more than its weight in gold, so he kept them more closely guarded than he did with his actual treasures. It was an unbelievably expensive indulgence, but what good was power if one couldn't use it for pleasure?

He grabbed a still sealed bottle and maneuvered for a while to remove the cork.

After finally opening the sealed bottle and pouring its crimson content in a cup, he took a sip and let the aroma rest in his palate.

Delightful.

Obister then removed his light coat, the jewelry around his neck, his shirt and kept undressing while savoring the refined aroma. When he had nothing on him but his pants he looked in the mirror. After admiring his figure for a long moment, he glimpsed at the reflection of the cleric slave. She had yet to move a finger to undress.

He left his mirror to reach the bed. He had already made plans for the evening, and she would assist him whether she liked it or not.

The partially undressed lord then stopped after taking a single step. There was something weird with the room.

He looked around to see whether something was out of place, but as he did so a terrible headache assaulted him.

Obister felt the temperature in the room rising and his throat went dry. He moved toward the wine-filled cup he left on the nearby table, but his steps were unsteady.

He sat on a chair ignoring its creaks. His head was spinning. He didn't felt well.

The lord governor grabbed the cup and realized he was sweating visibly. To quell the thirst he swallowed his priceless high-class wine in a single sip, without even paying attention to the flavor he used to savor at every drop.

Before the precious liquid contained in the cup could slip down his throat in its entirety, the cup fell from his hand. Trying his best to ignore the crimson treasure spilled on the floor, he immediately looked at his hand. He raised it in front of him, trying to keep it as still as he could, but it was shaking so much he didn't even seemed to be trying.

In front of him, the cleric slave had moved her head. When his cup had fallen on the ground it must have attracted her attention. She was now sitting on the bed, blankly looking in his general direction.

He invested a fortune to buy a remedy to all afflictions; he would use it.

The lord governor stood up, or at least he tired with all his strength. He couldn't even leave the chair.

"Hey!"

She didn't react.

"Hey, slave!"

Still nothing.

"Hey, slave girl! I'm talking to you. Oi! Cleric!"

Her head moved; he had gotten through her.

"Come here."

No response.

"Cleric! Oi! Cleric!"

Her eyes moved. She was looking toward him, though there was no focus in them.

"Hey, slave cleric. I'm feeling bad. Get your ass here and do something useful for once!"

Her eyes were slowly gaining focus.

"Hurry! It hurts. I can't move. Come here and cure your master! Cleric!"

She looked at him. Obister had finally managed to get her attention.

"Slave. Come here now!"

She was observing him, but her body was as still as a stone.

"Come here and save me woman. What? Do you want your master to die?"

Her body was immobile. Her eyes were on him. His shouts this time however managed to produce a reaction, even if nearly imperceptible. One corner of her mouth slightly moved upward.

His stomach was hurting to unbearable levels, his vision getting foggier.

He had enough of that.

"Guards!"

He shouted with all his strength.

"Guards! Come inside."

His throat felt on fire, but he screamed with all the air in his lungs.

"Guards! I'm dying! This bitch isn't moving a fucking finger! Come in and beat her!"

It was getting harder and harder to breath.

"Guards! Guards! Guards!"

Obister was wheezing, his body was covered in sweat, he felt like if the room was on fire, his head was spinning incessantly, but no response came from the other side of the door.

Before he could shout once more, an unbelievable pain surged in his chest. He screamed in agony, the stabbing pain wasn't getting any weaker.

He exerted all his strength to look at the point where the pain was coming from.

In that moment, the world stopped. His heart skipped a beat, the immense heat he felt vanished, replaced by freezing cold. The primordial fear all humans would eventually face had come for him.

Death.

On his chest, right over his heart, there was a small black dot roughly the size of a thumbnail. He would never mistake it for anything else.

Extract of Black cobra flower.

When? Where? How?

He looked at the cup of spilled wine on the floor.

"Impossible. There's no…"

Pain surged once more in his body, impeding him to finish the sentence. Speaking even a single word was as painful as getting stabbed by a knife.

He looked back at the bed. His slave was still sitting there. Watching.

"Slave!"

That single word caused him unbelievable pain.

"Get here."

His tone was getting lower. His voice would vanish shortly. He tired to raise a hand toward her, but he could no longer move his body.

Then, when all was lost, hope. The cleric girl stood up from the bed, looking at him in the eyes. She walked toward him, dragging her chain through the room.

He was saved. She brought her restrained palms close to his chest, right over where the black stain was. Obister knew the process necessary to heal with the power of the gods. Next she would say the incantation and he would be as good as new.

"What's my name?"

What?

Her eyes were as cold as ice. The vacant broken expression on her face had been replaced with one of absolute seriousness.

Why now of all times?

The pain suddenly got more intense. The stain on his chest was now the size of a palm.

"I'm poisoned."

It was meant to be a shout, it came out as a whisper.

Her face remained the same.

"What. Is. My. Name?"

Fuck.

"A… Alitre?"

She stared coldly at him.

"That sounded like a question."

He tried to swallow, but the saliva going down his throat felt like broken glasses.

"Alitre."

Her face got closer.

"Alitre what?"

The stain ached once more. It was now the diameter of a span.

"Arghhh!"

Her face was as still as a mask. Obister's scream of pain couldn't reach her even on his deathbed. Wheezing, he attempted his best to recall her surname. He had heard of it only once, it was something like…

"Feli. Alitre Feli."

Her expression finally changed. Her lips curved in a smile.

She moved her hands back toward his bare chest, positioned them over the black stain quickly devouring his body and pushed with all her strength.

"Not even close!"

He fell from the chair hearing that scream. His body was weakened to the point he couldn't even move his head. He could do nothing but whisper in pain.

Then, a new pain surged in his body. It came from between his legs.

"I'm Jane! Jane Gueli! Got it, you pig? Jane!"

She had started kicking him. She was putting so much strength in each blow that she was constantly a step away from loosing her balance.

"Say it, you swine! Say it!"

The guards stationed just outside the door didn't came even as she screamed in rage.

He tried with all his might to pronounce her name, but his mandible wasn't moving.

The stain was now covering the entirety of his chest, doing in minutes what should have took months. He was on the floor, in his pants, paralyzed, poisoned, in pain and repeatedly kicked by his own slave. He just couldn't bring himself to appreciate the irony of dying while being beaten by the person he bought for the ability to save lives.

Then, when all seemed lost, somehow, it got even worse.

The cup of wine he had dropped on the ground had something wrong with it. At first he assumed it was the poison twisting his senses, but it almost seemed as though its shadow had moved.

Mere moments later, he realized it wasn't a misperception caused by the substance killing him at unnaturally quick speed. The shadow was actually getting larger and larger; then it rose from the floor and silently grew in the air until becoming a tall pitch-black pillar of darkness in which no light existed.

Jane kept kicking without realizing what was happening behind her. Then, maybe realizing he was no longer looking at her, maybe somehow feeling something was wrong, she stopped venting her suppressed anger on him and looked back.

She fell on the ground, the shock of what she saw making her loose balance. She then uncoordinatedly crawled in the furthest corner of the room, almost stumbling in her chain at every step. There was more fear in her eyes now than he ever saw before.

Then, as if reacting to Jane's escape to the furthest away allowed by the chain, something white with a silvery jewel appeared close to the darkness' top. Was it a face? No. It was more like a mask. A blank featureless mask, like if it was put there just to suggest where to look at. It took him moment to realize it wasn't an object that stood in the middle of the room, but rather a being.

His instinct told him the shadow-like existence standing in front of him was unfathomably dangerous. The fear it inspired in him with his very presence was even superior to the one he felt realizing death was coming for him. Like if something within him was saying that death was a better alternative than facing the shadow.

The amalgamation of darkness moved his mask toward him. Obister was being observed by the living shadow that hid below the mask. As he was being watched by that monstrous presence, the pain vanished. The fear he felt was so great that it completely overshadowed the pain caused by the black stain now encasing his torso.

After a few seconds he felt passing slower than years, the shadow moved away from him. Even in a situation as bad as his, even if for less than a single second, he felt relief.

The presence then moved toward the corner his slave had run to. She tried her best to make herself as small as possible, crouching at the edge of the room. If the darkness behind the mask instilled so much fear in a doomed man like him, he could only try to imagine that effect his presence would have on her.

She was shaking. Shivering beyond control. Cowering with her face between her knees.

An extension of darkness shaped like a hand went toward her and touched the iron chains on her wrists. The metallic restraints fell on the marble floor without producing sound.

"Jane Gueli."

Hearing her name being called, she raised her head and fearfully looked at the presence that had just freed her.

A large man-sized disk emitting obsidian brilliance appeared in the room.

"Next time you open your eyes, you will no longer exist in the world of men."

The hand-shaped darkness moved toward her face. When it retracted she was asleep.

Grabbing her by the waist and putting her where a human would have had his shoulder, the presence headed toward the unnatural portal in the middle of the room.

When hey were right in front of it, the amalgamation of living darkness turned and looked at him through his mask one last time.

"You may take _this_ as an example of war won hiding in the shadows."

It then crossed the gate; bringing with him the slave he had spent a fortune to buy and leaving him with those words.

As he was unable to move or speak, feeling indescribable pain in every fiber of his body, the black stain covered the entirety of his skin. Death would arrive only after several hours.


	7. Chapter 7: Greed

Chapter 7: Greed

"That is a terrible idea."

She quietly watched from the sidelines as those harsh words of denial cast a grave silence in the thrones room.

"Why would you suggest that? Do you even realize how dangerous would that be?"

The vampire wasn't even trying to sweeten his words, addressing his companion as if he were a complete fool. In his eyes she could see the determination of a man that wouldn't step down without a fight.

"Is this some kind of personal vengeance? Do you want us to risk our lives on a grudge?"

The flurry of criticisms directed at the living shadow seemed destined to continue forever, an actual possibility given that both of them had likely achieved immortality, but the avian sorcerer sitting at their table interrupted Abelkin before he could do so.

"Actually, I think this isn't such a bad plan. It _is_ unconventional, but I honestly believe we could manage."

The unnaturally pale undead sighted at Govan's words. It puzzled her, he shouldn't have needed to breathe; maybe it was a vestige of his past humanity, or he more likely just wanted to emphasize his next words.

"This isn't about whether we _can_. It's about whether we _should_."

The feathered mystic wavered at those words, incapable to properly answer the undead. As for her, she just wanted to get up and leave; but considering the importance of the role she was supposed to play it was merely wishful thinking. She had no alternatives but to keep quiet and listen to what the vampire was saying.

"Fighting anyone always constitutes a danger, let alone a dragon. Regardless of whether we can win or not, we must first consider if it is necessary to take the risk in the first place."

"But there is no risk."

Everyone's eyes went to the only other girl in the room.

"As long as it's only the eight of us we are risking nothing, in the worst-case scenario we will just die. I have already finished my experiments with resurrection; I could bring us all back to life in a few minutes, then we will only need to get back our equipment and level up."

Izora's cheerful declaration was met with cold eyes and doubtful expressions. In response to her words, Abelkin's hand clenched in a fist, betraying his ill concealed frustration. The vexation that had been building up for the past few weeks suddenly exploded in an exasperated shout.

"This is no longer a…!"

The vampire managed to stop his words before they could form a complete sentence. On the opposite side of the table, floating close to the guild master's throne, the hand of the kings stopped writing on his massive tome. Ever since their arrival, the word "game" had yet to be transcribed on Alkadeias' record.

After Abelkin's storming emotions got swiftly swept away like leaves in the wind, the unliving vice guild master restructured his sentence so that it would be more open to interpretation.

"I'm just saying that after what happened fifteen days ago, delicate techniques such as resurrection could function differently on us than how they used to."

The ability to quickly raise others to life on the spot at the expense of a single level was one of the greatest benefits of having a maxed level cleric in a party; but Izora was the only one completely certain her powers would still work on them as usual.

Having a fictional body slayed and resurrected only required faith in a few lines of code, but when the body was your only real one and "magic" the best explanation available, you would be needing the kind of faith you would only put in a god. Until the day a player passed away and she brought him back to life, they would never honestly count resurrection among their options.

The vampire stared at Izora for a long moment, his crimson eyes carefully studying the unfazed priestess. He then slowly shook his head and addressed his guild-mates once more.

"We have no reason to fight the dragon. We are more than capable to keep going on like this."

Once those words were spoken, the human sitting between the priestess and the assassin immediately backed Abelkin's point from a different prospective.

"We have never faced an opponent this powerful with so few people. Normally we could count on a raid of thirty-six combatants for opponents on his level; now there are only eight of us, and failure will enrage the dragon even further. Now he isn't looking for us, but it won't last if we attack."

She listened to Zaiho explaining his point of view; it made sense.

Once they attacked, any outcome aside for slaying the dragon could spell their doom. It was true they were hiding, but it wasn't like they crouched in the deepest part of a cave, ate raw mushrooms and stayed away from the sun's light; they were in a majestic flying castle, with treasures, servants and luxurious lives that could very likely be eternal. Why should they risk throwing it all away?

"It won't last even if we don't attack."

The human-shaped darkness interrupted her train of thought before she could give herself an answer. Everyone was now looking at the best estimation of where Raal was.

"The dragon already wants us dead. In fact, he was the first to attack."

The hand of the kings kept psychically moving his quill to save their every word for posterity.

"We will fight. Maybe not in a couple of days, maybe not for decades, but at some point we will clash. With my plan we can finish this two days from now, half a minute at most. Otherwise we can spend the rest of our lives waiting for the dragon to attack us one by one when we least expect it."

That was a bit too melodramatic; the reason he was tasked to spy on the dragon in the first place was to never get caught off-guard, and their base could always just fly away if the dragon got too close. Besides that, half a minute? That was a pretty bold declaration.

"I don't know…"

The tengu spoke once more; there was now hesitation in his words.

"I can see your point, but going with only the eight of us seems a bit…"

Govan seemed far less willing to follow unorthodox plans after being reminded that resurrection was off the table, but the towering figure at his right swiftly decided to fill the silence he had left in the room.

"I'm in. If we don't kill the dragon no one else will do it for us."

The monk's words were filled with confidence. Shen hadn't stopped looking for a fight ever since they arrived, he wouldn't let this one slip through his fingers.

"And on top of that, once he is gone his territory becomes ours. I'm sick tired of hunting in the deepest parts of the forest to not get spotted."

On his throne, the guild master was massaging the small horns growing in the lower part of his mandible. He looked at his guild-mates with his ember eyes, spending a long moment on each of them.

Being stared by an arch-demon seemed to never get less disquieting, and telling herself that it was still the same Azul somehow made things even worse.

Alkadeias was patiently waiting half-meter from the ground, his book and quill floating in front of him, ready to record what the king of kings would say next.

"As we cannot seem to find an unanimous agreement and time is an essential factor in the plan, this dispute will be settled by majority vote."

She couldn't help but to sigh internally. They had come to solve practically every issue with majority vote. Back when there was over a hundred of them it was both fair and efficient, but with only eight people it had turned into a nerve-wracking activity. The less people were involved, the more each individual vote counted.

"In favor or against? Raal?"

Azul hadn't wasted a moment and was already taking their votes.

"In favor."

Quite unsurprisingly, the one proposing a plan agreed to enact it.

"Zaiho?"

Wasting no time, Azul had already moved to the next person on the table.

"Against."

And with that, the first two votes had just cancelled each other.

"Izora?"

"In favor."

…That absolute confidence used to be out of character for her. She had no idea what lead her friend to change so much in just a couple of weeks. Not being affected by gaining epic powers was impossible, but she seemed way more affected compared to the others.

"Abelkin?"

Was it just her impression or voting seemed to be going faster than usual?

"Against. We don't need this fight."

Here it comes…

"Ayaki?"

Her turn.

She was petting one of her tails below the table, trying to not let the others see how stressed she was.

Meeting once a day and voting at least a couple of times per meeting, she had come to understand the dynamics of her group. The four before her had never voted all for the same thing, and cases where they completely cancelled each other's vote like just now were common occurrence. As for those coming after her, Shen was never shy in telling his opinion on any matter while Govan was the kind of guy that would always follow majority; when it was his turn he rarely picked the side with fewer votes.

This lead many times to situations where she had much more influence over the final outcome than just one eighth of the decision. For example, if right now she were to say "In favor" there would be at least five votes to carry out the plan. By agreeing, her vote alone could tip the whole balance in that direction.

There was but a single problem, it wasn't the direction she wanted.

"Against."

Her role in the plan was far too big; a single mistake on her part would mean the failure of the entire operation. If she could do anything to avoid such overwhelming responsibility, she would.

"Govan?"

"Against."

As expected, he went with the majority. After him, Shen would vote in favor and cancel her vote; ultimately leaving the final decision to the guild master. If he were to vote against, the plan wouldn't pass five to three; if he instead voted in favor it would be a tie, making the plan pass due to him being the tiebreaker. Either way the final decision would be entirely in his hands; all she could do now was to hope for Azul to vote against the borderline crazy plan of fighting the dragon with just eight of them.

"Shen?"

"In favor."

He didn't hesitated for a second.

Now it was four against and three in favor.

All eyes were on the arch-demon.

Ayaki held her breath, nearly hugging a few of her tails below the table.

Against. Against. Against. Please, say against.

* * *

The room was small, yet comfortable. A small fireplace in the corner gave the place a very peaceful feeling, while the large sofa on the opposite side of the room seemed the perfect place to spend a relaxing evening.

One of the room's occupants approached a small table upon which bottles of wine and other beverages had been prepared. Grabbing one of them without looking, he removed the cork with his teeth and approached the window as the floor creaked at every step.

In the plaza outside, a large crowd had gathered shortly after the sun rose. One would have expected a considerable hubbub from so many people reunited in a single place, but few of them seemed interested in conversation.

"Get away from there."

The monk took his eyes away from the plaza and looked behind him. Zaiho was standing by the entrance, nervously eavesdropping on the door in case someone approached from the other side. The metallic fingers forming his claw had merged in a single blade and his human hand was tightly gripping a gold-like urn, ready to release its power at any moment.

Rather than tense, he was one misstep away from a mental breakdown.

The monk looked back outside with an uncaring smile stamped on his face; he sipped the bottle's content and then responded without looking at the crafter.

"I can sense no one but us in this building; we have already looked for everything that could be searched and warded the room with spells and items, it's safe. Just sit down and relax, Raal said we are running no risks in here."

Why did he have to bring him in this? When had he ever said there were no risks? And how dumb could he be to tell to someone on the brink of panic to "just sit down and relax"?

Quickly setting those questions aside, Raal rushed to defuse the situation before either of them could do something extremely stupid, like keep talking.

"I have cast [Image of calm], [Greater isolate] and [Aura of the unremarkable] on the room, while Govan used [Mage's private sanctum], [Greater secrecy] and [Widen spell: impenetrable veil]. Izora is using her [Secret temple] and [Hide from faithless], while Shen is observing the area with his [Ki vision] and we are using items to further conceal us. Furthermore, in the unlikely case we are found, we will easily have enough time to teleport back to the castle before we can be attacked. We are as safe as it is possible to be." Though there is no such thing as absolute safety.

With the crafter now further away from mental breakdown than he was a moment ago, Raal brought his attention back to the monk. He was drinking alcohol while looking outside without a care in the world.

While it was true that a normal wall wouldn't make much of a difference if an opponent could see through all their layers of concealment, Shen was clearly just being reckless for the sake of it.

After considering that people like him stubbornly got more reckless when they were asked to keep caution, he concluded it was better to just let him be and focus on the preparations.

Raal observed the other occupants of the room. Eight individuals of incomprehensible power were all sharing the same small space.

Azul and Abelkin were standing in the center a few steps from each other, ready to react if anything were to happen. They were tense, but dealt with the situation considerably better than Zaiho.

The arch-demon was nearly as tall as the ceiling, dominating the room with his presence. A fiendish-looking long-sword and a massive war-hammer were on his back, while a whip strapped to the belt rested on his side. The vampire was instead wearing a complete set of heavy full-plate armor as black as the night, with a one-handed sword on each side and kite shield on his back.

Govan was sitting on a wooden armchair in a corner; his staff leaned on the wall behind him. Raal still hadn't completely gotten used to read non-human faces, but the way the avian spell caster constantly shifted his weight on the chair and kept his hands on the [Greater teleportation] scroll suggested that he wasn't completely calm.

On the sofa, Izora had a calm smile on her face, a stark contrast with the expression most of the other occupants showed. While he personally would have appreciated that his plan could inspire that much confidence in someone, he had solid reasons to assume the source of her positive attitude was something far less reliable than his extensive research and careful planning.

Lastly, sitting on the other side of the sofa, Ayaki was inspecting the conditions of her bow. She had been doing so for the last twenty minutes, as she previously did with the items concealing the room and with the piece of paper where she had written a few notes on the plan.

She appeared to be perfectly collected; calmly verifying everything was ready before the dragon's arrival. None of her actions showed even a glimpse of worry, but her movements were far too polished to be natural. He had spent too much time studying kinesics and nonverbal communication to not recognize an artificial behavior right in front of him.

She was concealing her stress, and there was quite a lot of it. It was natural to be tense in her situation; a large part of the plan's success rested on her shoulders.

Raal looked outside the window, it was about time. He once again invoked the power of the magic crown he wore; images of his target appeared in his mind. The dragon lord of wilderness was already crossing the hills south of the city.

He looked at his guild-mates through his pale mask.

"Let's get started."

Following his words, the kitsune suddenly halted her movements. She stared briefly in front of her with a calm smile on her lips, any less experienced observer wouldn't had noticed the fear in her eyes; she then stood up with forced calm and moved a few steps forward.

"[Greater luck]."

Following the incantation, her body was surrounded by an intense arcane aura.

"[Greater full potential], [Paranormal intuition], [Magnify elements]…"

As she continued to cast long-lasting buffs, Izora stood up as well and pointed her holy symbol toward the vulpine bard. The chants of her divine blessings swiftly followed.

"[Sacred guidance], [Blessing of elements], [Divine might]…"

Govan was now holding his staff and had also begun to cast spells at her.

"[Extended Magic: Penetrating blows], [Greater haste], [Heightened magic: Preternatural accuracy]…"

The three of them casted a seemingly endless series of spells whose purpose was to maximize the deadliness of her attacks in the next few minutes, brightening the room with the lingering lights of their magic. As opposite magical attributes would cancel each other and many effects would not stack, they had previously spent several hours figuring out which combination of spells, items and skills could produce the highest amount of damage in a single attack. The final result was a total of forty-three spells divided between Ayaki and her bow, five different items and seventeen skills that did not overlap with each other.

Back in the game it would have been impossible to fight any boss using that many buffs at once. All the obstacles on the way to the final room would, in a way or the other, make them waste the long lasting spells, while spending too much time buffing up in the dungeon's last room would render the group vulnerable.

Assuming the party really put an effort into it, having a single overly-buffed member against a boss was technically possible; but after the wrong video became viral on the socials, most bosses were programmed to respond to such approach with [Superior anti-magic field] and [Widened spell: Mage's Disjunction].

Though the strategy was no longer available in the game, it wasn't necessarily impossible for them now. Challenging a boss in a dungeon meant they were fighting him on his terms, on his battlefield and with him in his top form. Now they could catch their foe off guard and attack him before he could disrupt the buffs.

"1500 meters."

The monk's words caused a brief interruption in the cascade of spells. The dragon lord of wilderness was now within the range of Shen's [Ki vision].

Everything was going as planned. In the time spent studying the dragon Raal learned it would still take him over another minute before landing, and he wouldn't cause unnecessary damage to the cities paying their tribute.

While the last spells were being cast on Ayaki's divine-grade bow, Zaiho quickly took an arrow out of his inventory and brought it to the warriors standing in the middle of the room.

It was a little over eighty centimeters long, entirely made of a silver-like metal and with a small dark crystal mounted in it. The arrowhead's shape was puzzling, a long rhombus slightly elongated toward the point; on one side there also was a deformation meant to make the arrow function as a hook, making it nearly impossible to remove once it penetrated the flesh.

Raal couldn't help but question whether such materials and design were actually suited for an arrow, but he had already seen it being used effectively back in the game. Most high-grade equipment seemed to function only by virtue of being magical, and if that wasn't the case one of his own blades ought to be even less practical.

Holding the arrow by the metallic fletching with his shape-shifting claw, Zaiho begun to use his skills to increase the arrow's power.

"[Bestow special ability: seeking], [Bestow special ability: penetrating], [Bestow special ability: heart-piercing]…"

As a crafter his combat abilities were lower than the other people in the room, but it was in situations like this that he could be at his most useful. Rather than specializing in one type of weapon he chose to focus on those made of metal, limiting the range of items he could work on while increasing the types. Combining this with his quick-forging skill, he could bestow a considerable number of extra weapon qualities to metal-made items even if he wasn't the original crafter; including cash-shop items such as the arrow.

The arrow was one of the most dangerous items in their possession, a [black crystal arrow]. Like other items made of [Black crystal], it was able of greatly affecting the ability to use magic and supernatural abilities. When fired it could ignore magical and supernatural defenses, including immunities and resistances; upon a successful hit, the crystal would break in the target's body and inflict a fifty percent chance failure on every spell and supernatural skill or ability until removed. A single one of them could turn the tide of a battle.

While the metal-shaper was bestowing abilities to the arrow, the balor lord pointed his palm toward it and activated one of his skills.

"[Hellish mark V]."

Azul inscribed his demonic symbol on the projectile, causing it to gain extra demonic effects. It was unusual for a barbarian to possess support abilities, but some of the most powerful racial classes were surprisingly versatile. Since the arrow didn't had the "evil" subtype the mark would vanish in a few minutes, but it would be more than enough time for Ayaki to attack the dragon.

As a large shadow suddenly flew over the window, the room abruptly fell into darkness. The light returned immediately after, followed by a loud thud that shook the entirety of the building.

The following moments passed in absolute silence. No one was talking, no one was moving. True silence dominated those instants.

Then, a distinct, proud and slightly fearful voice could be heard from outside.

"Welcome, oh mighty dragon lord."

He had arrived.

One minute from now he would start devouring the tribute and the plan would begin. Raal looked at Ayaki, all the spells had already been cast.

"[Blood magic: Infuse spell – Touch of undead]."

Abelkin had already returned to work on powering up the arrow. His words shattered the stillness of the room like a rock thrown on a window, bringing the others' concentration back on the matter at hand.

"[Blood magic: Infuse spell – Energy drain]."

"We are honored you have chosen to visit us in this humble city whose creation you allowed."

While outside the speech to greet the dragon earned them the time they needed, the work on the arrow was quickly completed. Azul seized it immediately and handed it over to Ayaki.

Now it was time to use her arcane archer skills to apply the final bonuses to the [Black crystal arrow].

"Please, accept this gift as a token of our everlasting gratitude to your immense self."

She nocked the arrow on her bow. Raal could feel his heart beating faster and faster.

"[Greater gravity blow], [Absolute strike], [Predator's will: dragon]."

She stretched the bow. They waited.

As the dragon walked the few steps separating him from the large pile of food, Raal held his breath. Looking through his crows' eyes he saw the new governor, Gerber el Nehim, being ignored by the dragon lord of wilderness while making the first public speech of his mandate.

The beast launched himself on the food like the animal he was, swallowing rather than eating.

Now. Twenty seconds.

Every time the monster opened his gigantic fangs, a small mountain of the city's provisions vanished down his throat. The dragon was so ravenous that he growled between one bite and the other.

Twelve seconds.

Shen lowered his stance and clenched his fists; the seriousness in his eyes was in stark contrast with the amused smile on his lips. Ayaki's tails were enveloped in elemental radiance.

Eight seconds.

Raal drew his spiral blade, ready to use it on a moment's notice. With mere seconds separating them from the opening attack, he couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. The elemental power gathered in the kitsune's tails flowed toward the arrow.

Four seconds.

Despite the cacophony of the dragon gorging on the tribute less than thirty meters from them, Raal could clearly hear Ayaki slowly inhaling and holding her breath. Her arrow was now shining, simultaneously charged by the power of nine different elements.

Two seconds.

Through his crows Raal saw the dragon already halfway through the mountain of offerings, devouring a colossal bite after the other.

One.

Zero.

The dragon's claws suddenly dug in the stone floor, opening long cracks in the plaza. His muscles tensed up, an abrupt swipe of his tail demolished the façade of the nearby city hall.

With a low growl, the dragon's fangs were for all to see.

The monster pushed with his anterior paws and erected himself in all of his height. His colossal wings stretched from one side of the plaza to the other, dwarfing the terrified onlookers below.

The roar shook the walls of the entire city.

The poisons had been released.

Raal's class levels were only in assassin classes, but his [Master assassin] class could convert them in alchemist levels to craft poisons. In this very narrow field of crafting, he could produce almost every poison of the game. The ones he sneaked in the tribute had been imbued with the "undetectable" special ability, concealing all presence and symptoms of ingested poisons until twenty seconds after consumption.

Ingested poisons were amongst the most powerful, though they were far harder to use in the game. One could use them only by sneaking them in another player's food before consumption or tricking others in ingesting them, rare considering the players that actually needed to eat did it in their guild bases; but the dragon lord was an easy target in this regard.

Panting heavily and growling in pain, the monster's body was slowly turning black. Large stains were appearing on his chest, while blood was pouring out of his jaws.

Some in the plaza were running to safety, but the majority of them were too terrified to even move. The sight of the angered dragon had completely frozen their bodies in horror.

Roaring in rage, the dragon's horns begun to shine. Like an immense lighthouse built in the middle of the city, they bathed the surroundings in their blinding light. Countless luminous orbs were willed into existence to fill the sky. As the human onlookers were forced to avert their eyes, the mystical spheres begun to dance around the dragon.

The spiral of light moved faster and faster around the deer-like behemoth, creating a vortex as tall as the sky.

And then, as the luminous tornado was violently rising from the city, Ayaki slowly exhaled and loosened her fingers, letting the arrow fly through the air.

Imbued with the last abilities the moment it left the bow, the black projectile phased through the wall as if it didn't exist.

It ran toward the dragon's chest at unnatural speed, inexplicably altering its trajectory to match the monster's movements.

It passed through the spiraling orbs as if they were nothing but an illusion, dissipating them with a touch of the crystal sliver.

An explosion of light filled the area.

Then, silence.

The shining orbs had vanished from existence as suddenly as they were weaved in it.

The arrow was no longer moving, frozen mid-air only mere meters from the dragon.

No wind blew.

Nothing moved.

The citizens were but motionless statues, immobile parts of the frozen world that had overtaken reality.

With blood still leaking from his jaws and eyes, the dragon returned on four paws. He gave a hasty look at the arrow frozen over him, then lowered his gaze until it stopped close to the building they were in.

His scaly lips curved in a feral smile. He thrust open his jaws, wide enough to easily swallow a grown man whole. A sea of fire flooded the plaza, rushing toward them; then it violently flowed through the window.

In the following seconds, a flaming storm burned in the room at over a thousand degrees. The rock-melting flames whirled in the room with incredible intensity, insinuating in every fissure and corner.

When the fire finally died, the room was no different than it was before.

The arch-demon lowered his smoking arms, revealing a face twisted by fury.

"Raal!"

In response to his shout, an amalgamation of darkness in the shape of a hooded man left his shadow.

Azul stared at the assassin, rage filling his eyes.

"What. Is. Happening?"

The unholy warrior made sure every word of his question conveyed his full dissatisfaction with their current predicament; however the answer came from somewhere else

"It appears time has stopped."

Even though the tengu's answer came from his back, Azul didn't avert his eyes from the shadow.

The plan Raal created hadn't survived its implementation, and as the guild leader he wanted to make him perfectly aware of who was responsible for this failure. The balor lord was furious, but Raal's mind was no milder than his.

Seventeen days. That was how long they had lived in the new world and that was how long he had been planning and preparing for this day.

He had been imprisoned, burnt and forced to fight for his life. He had seen death in the eyes twice. He had spent sleepless nights with the feeling of fire on his skin and the image of his melting flesh burned in his mind. The growing hatred endlessly burning in his body hadn't left him one moment since the day they arrived. When his morality crumbled to pieces as he spied, manipulated, stole and killed, revenge was the only thing that pushed him to go forward; and now it had all been for nothing.

His plan was perfect. Avoid the dragon lord's unpredictable magic by pushing him in a situation where casting a spell he had already seen was the most logical outcome, deal as much damage as possible when in the middle of the casting to break the spell and weaken him, follow up with a [death attack] when he is heavily wounded and all the variables are against him and finally claim the soul before he can self-resurrect.

Everything was going as planned. He had managed to convince the others to help him, the governor he put in power handed him all the management details, the arrow could have one-shot the majority of the game bosses and the dragon behaved as he expected until almost the very end.

What went wrong? Who messed up? Was it Ayaki's fault? Was her timing wrong? No. The timing was perfect. It was the spell. Time stop. Was the casting time shorter? Could the dragon lord cast quickened spells? When had him given any indication he could do that? And who would even think of stopping time when poisoned? Everyone's first instinct should have been to remove the poison. Why has he…

No.

Below his mask, Raal bit his lower lip. His fangs penetrated deep in the flesh, interrupting the storm of questions in his mind through pain.

One thing at a time. There will be time for questions later.

With his mind rid of superfluous thoughts and his lacerated lip already regenerating, Raal quickly assessed the situation.

Since nothing can be affected when outside the flow of time, the room and the items within hadn't sustained damage.

The anti-detection and stealth abilities were still working; meaning the dragon currently had no way to determine if his attack had been effective.

No one had died in the fire. They had all managed to evade the scattered flames or take only minor damage.

Ayaki, Izora, Abelkin and Zaiho were making use of passive anti-time-stop countermeasures. They were frozen in time, but they could subtract the lost period from the casting of any ability they possessed. When time would return to normality, they would be under the effect of a powerful yet normally unusable buff that would give them an edge afterward.

He, Azul, Shen and Govan instead used active countermeasures. They had ways to move while the time was frozen, giving them the task to prevent the opponents from simply over buffing themselves in the stopped time so that their unmoving allies wouldn't be overwhelmed thereafter.

Right now Raal's priorities were: getting out of the fight alive, not getting lynched by the guild and prevent the death of as many allies as possible. If reasonable, kill the dragon lord of wilderness.

He looked at the guild leader, still staring at him with furious eyes and waiting for an answer.

Let's start with not getting lynched.

"It is true no one thought of the possibility a [time-stop] could be used in the ambush, but this plays to our advantage."

Raal breathed regularly and altered the tone of his voice to appear more confident than he was. Through the fissures that were arch-demon's eyes it was still possible to see his fury, but after hearing his words at least he stopped showing him his fangs.

Now that it was less likely to be cut in half in a fit of rage, he had to tell him all the positive sides of the situation. If any of the downsides was mentioned, there was a non-negligible possibility the guild leader would strike him down.

"I am seeing through my crows that the dragon wasted a considerable amount of power to stop time, and it is clear he don't know the workings of his own spell. He chose to attack when we were the least likely to take damage, and instead of pressing on with his offensive he is wasting time trying to confirm the attack's outcome."

During a [time stop], acting quickly was even more important than it normally was. Even taking blind shots would be a better alternative than doing nothing.

"We, on the other side, are nearly unharmed and still protected by our layers of anti-detection; with half of us about to receive a powerful buff. The dragon hasn't even taken any step to hinder our escape, in the worst case scenario we can just wait for the time to return normal and teleport to safety."

Azul's face was dominated by disappointment; but considering it was the alternative to murderous rage, disappointment was fine.

Raal now just needed to remind him that voting implied shared responsibility.

"We lost little to nothing. The limited costs in case of incidents was among the plan's selling points when we voted for it."

With the balor lord still staring at him, Raal prepared to tap into his mystical abilities and escape in the dark world. Considering the possible arch-demon's attacks and the distance between them, he should be able to shift in the obscure plane of existence before any lethal attack could reach him.

For a long moment no one in the room dared to break the silence; then Azul closed his eyes and sighed, lifting the tension that had been building up in the room.

Raal found relief in that reaction like a drowning man would find in air. He was ok for now, but it was only temporary. The discussion had only been postponed for later, and unless we wanted a fate worse than actually drowning he would need to find some rock-solid arguments by then.

All fancy words aside, what had they actually lost?

The cash-shop items weren't one-use, aside for the arrow. That was gone, and also precious; they only had other three left. Maybe he could manage to retrieve it if time remained frozen long enough.

It was also good no one had died yet, but they were irreparably compromised. The dragon had been attacked and it had been in Ulovale. If they couldn't come up with a way to kill him now they would need to start again from zero, wasting all the progress of the past weeks.

Maybe he could convince them that relocating would have been in their best interest anyway; like bringing up that the resources in the forest were running out or something along those lines.

He should give those points some thought.

Meanwhile Azul had turned toward the other two, asking a question to no one in particular.

"How long has it been?"

The monk approached him while providing a concise answer.

"A little over fifty seconds."

Azul looked toward Govan, a clear message in his eyes. The feathered wizard immediately stood up and moved toward them.

"Govan, how long before time returns to normality?"

The avian caster answered while giving a quick glance outside the window.

"Hard to say. The shortest a player can stop time is twelve seconds, while normally one could last up to a minute and a half. The record for a single player with supporting items and specialized classes is six minutes, but the mini-boss [Elli, of the old] in the Utgardar castle could halt it for twelve."

They looked at their frozen comrades, each surrounded by magical effects slowly covering their bodies. The longer they remained in the frozen time, the more powerful they would be once they could move.

Azul clenched his fist and looked at them one by one, weighting the possibilities in his head.

"The situation has gone too far off from what was planned. We will wait for the time to return normal, grab the others and…"

"Out! Now!"

Half a heartbeat after Shen's shout, a concentrated beam of blinding fire burst through the window and inundated the room in flames. It grew in power and intensity with every second, forming a fierce cyclone of scorching annihilation in the unchanging room.

The fire burned with preternatural power, the flames capable of meeting the melting point of any conceivable material.

As the flaming tornado engulfed the place, Shen appeared over the rubbles of the destroyed town's hall. Briefly after, following a flash of light, Azul and Govan materialized on the rooftop of a nearby building. They were greeted by the sight of the wilderness dragon lord hurling his beam of concentrated fire at their window.

The deer-like behemoth closed his jaws to interrupt his fiery breath shortly after their appearance and looked at the three of them with eyes glowing of magical light.

Before a word could be said, the monk charged forward.

In a single jump he reached the dragon's frontal paws and kicked the knee on the side with all his might. Backed by the abundant Ki and the perfectly trained body, his kick had enough power to destabilize the huge beast. He immediately followed up with a second kick to the other paw, but without the charge's momentum his attack was ineffective against the dragon's nearly indestructible scales.

As the undiscouraged monk pressed on with the attack pouring a flurry of blows on the dragon's side, a few near-imperceptible words left the arch-demon's ajar lips.

"…God damn it Shen…"

He took his whip from the side and grabbed the long-sword on his back with his right hand, enveloping them in infernal flames as he quickly grew in size and a fiery aura emanated from him.

"Shen, to the back; flanking maneuver. Govan, support; I don't want other surprises. Raal, DPS; take every shot you see."

His bat wings opened wide on his back; pushing all the air they could move, Azul sprinted forward in a charge against the dragon. The flaming whip rapidly flew toward the beast's face, missing the eye only for the dragon's promptness of reflexes that allowed him to tilt the head in time; however the whip produced enough distraction to allow the balor lord to strike with his flaming long-sword using all his might right where the monk first struck. The blade pierced through the scales and penetrated the flesh, pouring a small river of blood onto the streets.

After he extracted the sword from the dragon, the infernal whip circled around the wounded paw as if gifted of a will of its own. The arch-demon quickly wrapped it twice around his hand and then pulled with all his might; but as the wounded limb begun to slip forward the deer-like monster pierced deep in the ground with his claws, blocking the drag attempt.

The dragon lord of wilderness immediately followed up the attack trying to devour the hellish outsider. His jaws fell wide on Azul with enough momentum to shatter boulders, only to abruptly find a far harder obstacle on their path.

"[Quickened magic: greater wall of force]."

A semi-transparent barrier rose from the ground, shielding the balor lord as the dragon crashed into the nearly indestructible wall with all his might.

Before the deer-like monster could have any time to process what trickery had neutralized his attack, a shadow spurt out of the statue-like crowd and slipped below the wall of force. By the time the beast felt the cut on his neck, Raal had already vanished among the time-frozen citizens.

Momentarily blocked behind the arcane barrier, the arch-demon looked at the only human in the fight. The monk was throwing several punches at each heartbeat, none of which seemed to have any effect.

"Shen! The scales give him damage reduction. Quality over quantity!"

Following those words, without a moment of hesitation, the monk jumped away from the dragon and dove toward a wall. The very moment after his feet touched the bricks, Shen was back in the air, once again charging propelled by a [Ki jump] toward the dragon. The impact with the posterior paw was fierce, further destabilizing the beast. Before the deer-like creature could have any time to recover, the shadow rushed in and exploited the opening by stabbing him in the side.

The dragon lord of wilderness attempted to strike them down with a sweep of his tail, but they had already gone outside its range.

A wrathful roar echoed in the plaza, followed by a glare growing down the dragon lord's throat. The same beam of pure flames they had seen but half a minute ago erupted from the beast's jaws and smashed on the transparent wall, causing the temperature on his side of the barrier to rise at abnormal speed.

As the blood leaking from the beast's jaws evaporated form the scorching heat, the pillar of concentrated fire kept growing in intensity. Shen suddenly materialized at Azul's side, covered in sweat and with heavy breath.

As Govan watched with a mixture of awe and fear the barrier he created blocking the immensely powerful attack, a cry left his beak.

"You've gotta be kidding me! [Extended magic: Mass superior circle of protection from fire]!"

Halfway through his chant, Raal emerged in front of him from a shadow and jumped in the spell's range.

A circle of white light surrounded each of them while the point where the beam was focused was turning dark. Azul put back his whip and long-sword and grabbed his giant war-hammer, enveloping it in hellish flames as he touched it. He then lifted his opened hand in the air for his companions to see and moved it vertically downward, signaling their next maneuver with a single gesture. Shen readied a stance, gathering Ki in his legs. Raal grabbed a dagger with each hand and moved at the head of the formation, his eyes fixed on the target.

The dark area on the barrier blackened rapidly. Cracks begun to appear throughout the surface. Govan opened his wings and rose a few meters in the air, pointing his staff at the fire breather.

Then, unable to resist any longer, the greater wall of force shattered into pieces under their very eyes. The barrier renowned in the game for being nearly unbreakable through sheer force and that had obligated players to find ways around it had been broken in twenty-four seconds with a direct attack. The pillar of fire reached them before they could even blink, spreading out after hitting the ground and swallowing the world around them.

Inside their circles of protection, the four of them looked at the flames enveloping everything in their path. Hadn't time been frozen, the city would no longer exist.

With only seconds before their only protection from flames of that magnitude discharged, they attacked with everything they had.

Raal jumped through the flames toward the dragon's head, slicing its side with all the strength he could muster when enveloped in such a bright light. Shen sprinted forward immediately after, reaching the dragon's lower jaw in a jump and kicking it downward while releasing large amounts of Ki to increase the attack's strength.

Their first two attacks hadn't dealt noteworthy amounts of damage; the power gap was too great for any of their attacks to individually inflict relevant results, but both had created favorable conditions for the one to follow.

Raal could only inflict superficial wounds, but he managed to lacerate a jowl; Shen had done little more than lowering the dragon's mandible, but now it was as open as the fire breather's anatomy permitted.

Azul opened his wings and pushed himself high as the two before him did. He gripped his hammer with both hands and then hit downward with all the power his massive demonic body provided.

A snapping sound spread through the area.

The flames ended, and then an indescribable cry filled the plaza. It wasn't a roar; it was more similar to what a talentless musician could produce with a broken instrument. It carrier pain, anger and suffering, but the sound's distortion stripped the howl of any dignity.

On the ground laid the massive lower half of the dragon's head, surrounded by broken teeth and with a twitching tongue above, forming a small crimson lake at his feet. Blood copiously flowed down from his mutilated head, painting the ground red.

With eyes filled with pain and rage the dragon went on a rampage, hitting the ground with his claws and rotating his tail in the air in a furious attempt to hit his opponents.

Flying above the deer-like behemoth, the feathered caster pointed his staff toward him. With eyes so cold that seemed of ice, he completed his offensive incantation.

"[Triple intensified empowered maximized magic: rays of disintegration]."

Eighteen tiny orbs of faint bluish light were conjured around the raven-like men. They emitted a fine line that swiftly flew toward the dragon lord of wilderness. Over a dozen of them made contact with his body.

The left horn, the end of his tail, large portions of the wings, his posterior right foot as well as many large areas of the dragon's scales abruptly crumbled to dust, leaving behind nothing but bones and exposed bleeding flesh.

An incomprehensible lament echoed in the frozen world, a wail carrying nothing but pain and suffering. The maimed beast attempted with all his might not to fall on the ground.

Filled with newfound rage the dragon spitted fire out of his destroyed mouth, enveloping in flames the world in front of him.

Govan brought himself outside the attack's range with his flawless areal maneuverability coming from the combined use of magical flight and racial wings, evading the attack and flying to where his comrades were.

Before he could even land Shen had already charged forward, initiating another flurry of blows on the areas no longer protected by scales. Raal had also slipped back into the shadows, waiting for another opportunity to hit.

Azul immediately placed himself between the wizard and their opponent.

"Status report!"

"Our attacks were effective. [Life essence] indicates the dragon's HPs now are below half, but my last spell almost completely drained my mana, I have only five more high level spells."

The balor lord switched his equipment back to long-sword and whip.

"For how long can you move?"

"My three minutes are about to expire. I can get other three if I time a [Triple extended maximized magic: time stop] on the end of the previous one, but then I would only have three spells."

Azul opened his wings as he shifted his weight forward.

"Pin down the dragon, cast the time stop and then focus on keeping him still for as long as you can."

Leaving those words behind the arch-demon charged forward, his whip striking at the unprotected wounds and his long-sword hitting with all the momentum gained in the charge.

Readying his staff and taking the air to increase his mobility, the robed tengu pronounced his next incantation.

"[Intensified empowered magic: greater black tentacles]."

A pitch black stain appeared on the ground below the dragon, as if ink had just been spilled on the very fabric of reality.

Countless tentacles abruptly emerged from the blackness and moved to grab the wounded beast trapped inside. They grew in size, clutching to any hold they could find and pulling down with all their strength.

The deer-like monster fought to free himself from the entangling blackness that squeezed to crush him, but the assassin slipped from the shadows to the dark conjuration and unleashed a merciless series of powerful attacks from below. The balor lord joined the attacks shortly after with his whip, increasing the amount of damage the dragon suffered as he attempted to regain his freedom.

Even as wounded as he was, the might of a dragon lord's body remained superior to the one of the strengthened eldritch appendices. The bleeding beast freed the upper half of his body and spread his two pairs of wounded wings, ready to fly away from the magical restrains that were conjured around him.

Seeing this, Govan rushed to cast another spell to maintain the dragon lord of wilderness down before his time in the frozen world ran out.

"[Maximized empowered magic: Telekinesis]."

An invisible wave of force came from above and pushed the maimed monster back into the greater black tentacles, submerging him in the moving blackness.

Ignoring the distorted cries of rage and pain coming from the monster trapped in his spell, Govan immediately readied himself to cast the time stop.

Counting the seconds in his head, he began the chanting to make the spell match with the end of his previous one.

"[Triple extended maximized…"

When he was only halfway through the words of power, a blaze emerged from the tangle of mystical tentacles. Bursts of fire emanated from the blackness, randomly enveloping everything in the area in flames.

Finding him halfway through his casting and no longer surrounded by his circle of protection, one burst of flame fell on the feathered caster before he had time to fly away.

Even thought it was a lucky shot from a wounded dragon, the power behind it was still massive and the timing couldn't have been worse. Govan reflexively raised his arms to protect his face as he was about to be enveloped in flames, but the protection offered by his magical panoply wasn't powerful enough to negate the fire.

Flames covered his feathers; he lost control of his wings and fell on the ground, breaking the concentration required to finish his spell. And thus his time in the frozen world ended, leaving behind a statue instead of a combatant.

No longer pushed down by the invisible force, the dragon exerted himself and finally broke free of his restraints, taking the sky on his perforated wings to flee from the black tentacles.

Shen looked at the frozen wizard, unmoving like a photograph. His eyes then went back to the fire-breathing monster, flying away from his striking range.

Without hesitation, he gathered Ki in his legs to prepare a [Ki jump] to close the distance and bring the monster back to the ground. Before Azul could do anything to stop him, he was already rocketing alone toward the dragon lord, away from cover and assistance.

The dragon managed to intercept his straightforward trajectory with his tail, but the monk's promptness of reflexes allowed him to grab it with his hands and deflect his dive toward the dragon's head.

A wall of flames was ready to meet him.

With his body moving faster than he could think, he reflexively activated a skill capable of absorbing elemental damage at the expense of his Ki.

Once the flames disappeared, his body had taken no damage; it instead floated immobile in the air. The Ki he had been using to move in the frozen time had run out to protect him from the flames, stripping him of his only way to move in a world where nothing could.

Azul looked in silence at the dragon lord landing a few dozen meters from him. Their numbers had halved twice in just three minutes, first when time was stopped and then now.

The balor lord put his weapons away and grabbed his war-hammer.

"Raal!"

Below him, the edge of his shadow slightly twisted.

"I'm going berserk. Stay out of my way."

The shadow twitched once more, the arch-demon was alone.

He looked at the dragon in front of him. As he stared intensely at the enemy, a low growl resonated in the outsider's throat, quickly increasing in intensity with each passing instant.

Intense flames were now on top of his head, his mouth a well of fire and his eyes windows to the pits of hell.

His muscles twisted and writhed; hundreds dark crimson horns grew out of his flesh, forming an armor of bones attached to his body. His fangs and claws grew longer; his wings became thicker and got covered in hard dark scales.

He grew even further in size and begun to walk forward as rage corrupted his body, the growl now a furious scream.

Holding his flaming war-hammer with a single hand, the raging Azul charged at the dragon lord with a speed one would not expect of a demon over four meters tall.

The dragon met him with an intense wall of flames, but Azul charged straight through it.

The hammer hit the lord of wilderness in what was left of his mouth, resulting in ivory splinters soaring into the air.

Without wasting a single moment to rejoice or to feel anything beside rage, the balor lord immediately followed his first attack with a second one. The flaming war-hammer fell on the creature's nose with so much power that it pushed the head to the side.

Relentless and unstoppable, the arch-demon continued his ruthless series of attacks by grabbing his fiendish weapon with two hands and drawing an ample circle in the air, at the end of which was the heavily damaged dragon's knee.

The lord of wilderness attempted to lift his paw in response, but the damage to the head had slowed his reflexes and he was too late. The hammer hit the knee to the side, and in a snapping sound the limb unnaturally bent to follow its movement.

Leaping out of the shadows, Raal slipped past his raging companion and stabbed the dragon once more, only to immediately disappear back in the darkness to escape both furious monsters.

Incapable of finding the cloaked figure with his rage-dulled senses, the demon ignored the assassin and waved his weapon once more, perpetrating the offensive to the deer-like monster.

The hammer once more found its way to the dragon, sending blood and scales in the air, but the next attack didn't came from the balor lord.

The monster's claw hit the arch-demon with incredible power, throwing him in a building over twenty meters away.

Azul hit the time-frozen wall and fell on the ground, smoking blood flowing out of his furnace-head.

Using the war-hammer to regain his footing he slowly stood up, the entire left side of his bone armor had shattered into pieces.

A demonic scream of rage echoed through the battlefield; the horns forming the fiendish natural armor abruptly grew back, forced out by the hellish fury.

Still pushed by his barbaric rage, Azul charged forward once more.

This time, rather than wasting his forces with another wall of flames, the dragon swept his tail, hitting his target and pushing back the outsider berserk once more. Seeing the fire-breathing behemoth struggling to move with a broken paw and a disintegrated foot, Raal blinked out of the shadows while his companion was being swept away, leaving behind a fast counterattack and a draconic scream of pain.

The still-flying demon let go of his war-hammer, spread his wings to increase friction and grabbed the floor using both hands, his fiendish claws struggling to find a hold in the ground.

Once he managed to stop, the hellish barbarian charged once more, this time to the side. Circling around the dragon lord of wilderness, he grabbed his flaming whip and made it rotate in the air. Not loosing precision in its wielder's rage thanks to its semi-awareness, the whip swiftly moved toward the dragon's head and tied itself around one of the deer-like horns. Then the guild leader ran with all his might, dragging his opponent by the horn while flapping with his wings to pull with more strength.

The dragon lord tilted his head to the other side and shifted his weight in the opposite direction to resist the balor lord's drag attempt and turn it against him. Even though they were both giants in their own right, the lord of wilderness was still over six times as large as the hellish rager; but he was severely injured and fighting a warrior fueled by the very fury of hell.

The two were evenly matched.

They both tried to plant themselves in the ground with their claws, to push with their wings, to do everything in their power to gain an edge over each other; but they were blocked.

Capitalizing on the stalemate, Raal left the shadows and raced at the dragon lord. He instantly reached a weak spot on the dragon's posterior paws where the scales had been disintegrated and slashed the muscles.

Loosing what hold he had on the ground, the dragon slipped forward and lost his balance.

Azul immediately pulled the flaming whip with both hands to push himself toward the now prone beast, charging once again toward him.

In a final push, the raging balor lord drew his long-sword and pierced the dragon in the back. He then extracted his blade and prepared to stab him once more, but the dragon pushed down with his wings and rolled over.

The arch-demon fell off and the dragon lord immediately pinned him down with his claw.

Shouting in fury, Azul untied his flaming whip from the horn and used it to attack the monster above him.

Wounded, maimed and crippled, the dragon lord of wilderness looked at his immobilized opponent and made his best attempt at a smile without his mandible. His horns then begun to shine and the small orbs of light Raal found way too familiar were willed into existence.

Aiming for his primary two targets that were finally left unguarded in the spell casting, Raal left the shadows and rapidly flew with his blades in hand.

His full attention was on the monster's eyes. The magical light they emitted appeared to have an effect even greater than [True vision V], rendering all his illusions useless. As long as the dragon had them, Raal had no way to remain hidden in the light without physical cover.

If he could manage to blind him, then the fight would permanently shift in their favor. They inflicted massive damage, but they came in eight and now only two were still fighting. The dragon was not only still able to move but was even fighting back effectively, focusing on them one by one and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The entire battle up to this point had been a continuous back and forth; if he could take his sight, then they would be able to overpower him in a two to one fight.

The spiral blade reached the dragon's right eye with a speed beyond human comprehension, but the eyeball remained untouched; Raal's weapon collided with a lid of solid magical light protecting the eye.

The enchantment shattered upon contact with the dagger, hurling its fragments flying toward him. One of the pieces touched his hand before he could move away, dispelling the concealing spells he was enveloped in.

After Raal appeared in Azul's field of view he heard a furious shout; he managed to dodge the berserker's whip by mere centimeters.

Unable to form any complex thought, the raging balor lord attacked him once more, forcing his own ally to fly further away from the dragon.

Raal looked in horror as the orbs of light quickly condensed in a small sphere above the dragon lord. He rushed at him to break the spell, but once more the whip forced him away.

Then, as Raal charged in one last time, the shining agglomeration quickly flew at the raging balor lord.

Raal dodged the arch-demon's flaming whip and his blade finally pierced the dragon's eye, but it was too late to break the spell and his grip remained strong.

As the assassin flew outside of the dragon's attack range he looked at the guild-master, a furious statue frozen back in the flow of time.

The deer-like behemoth slowly lifted his paw and studied the surroundings with his remaining eye.

Raal landed in the middle of the time-frozen crowd.

The two looked at each for a long moment, as if trying to peer into the other's mind.

Raal then took three steps back, vanishing in the crowd of statues and melding into the shadows. The dragon raised his head, opening his mouth and inundating everything with a sea of fire.


End file.
